Admiral (WormSuper Robot Wars V)
by JayF SB
Summary: Admiral Taylor Trois of the Earth Federation was a deeply troubled woman who remembered being a teenager in a world of superheroes and where the oceans are blue. Taylor Hebert remembers being a woman who travelled three universes, fighting against and alongside gods of Iron.
1. Chapter 1

A/N- Motivation to write, and I managed this with all my other stories sputtering as I hammer out three sentences before leaving them. Damn it all to hell.  
Ah well, won't the weirdest thing I've written.

 **Admiral (Worm/Super Robot Wars V)**

Recon 1  
/x/

Cracked, red earth that's lifeless and barren. A middle aged man in a pristine white uniform with the blue anchor ensign of the Earth Federation Space Force-North America adorned on the shirt piloted a helicopter over the arid ground, while a tall woman sat behind alone. She wore a black jacket with blue trimmed rank epaulets over a similar white uniform, with a grey helmet with earpiece while a peaked officer's cap rested on her lap. The pilot glanced back at his passenger as the officer leaned sideways to the windows and gazed down below, before he spoke into his mouthpiece.

"Admiral. Ma'am?"

The admiral kept her attention on a blocky, gray facility that stood out from the terrain that was more Martian than Terran, as the chopper slowly descended.

"Admiral Taylor Trois?"

"Heard you the first time, Master Chief."

Taylor sank back into her seat, and the pilot reverted to looking at the helipad that grew larger at their approach. The pilot felt his hair stand at the gaze he felt from his passenger.

"Kyushu, huh?"

"Ma'am?"

"Nothing," Taylor shook her head, before she dusted her cap. "just some residual delusions from my Planet Bomb Syndrome. Ignore me."

The pilot kept silent as the helicopter landed, and Taylor removed her helmet to allow long wavy hair to flow down her back before she redid her ponytail. As her transport departed, a massive steel door rumbled to reveal her escort of two armed marines in full combat webbing and one EFSF Japan lieutenant. All three saluted Taylor, who kept her gaze fixed at the desert that was once a beach.

"Keep thinking that Kyushu was beneath the sea," Taylor muttered as she put on her cap, the badge gleamed in the sun. "Silly me."

Taylor returned the salute, and gave another quick glance at the endless badlands before she followed the lieutenant underground.

"Earth has no oceans anymore. Not like the Endbringers will have much to destroy here."

"Ma'am?"

 _That's getting repetitive,_ Taylor thought as she paid more attention to her Japanese guide when he called her. His mane of curly brown hair stuck out from beneath his garrison cap, while his red ensign on the standard white was extremely vivid. Taylor narrowed her eyes as she focused on the sharply featured face and hazel brown eyes of her guide.

"Lieutenant Susumu Kodai?"

"You're well informed, Ma'am," Kodai smiled as they resumed walking and entered the elevator. "I was wearing my ensign blues only this morning."

"Speaking of well informed, Lieutenant. What do you know about me?"

Kodai's face tightened for a flash, before he resumed his business-like smile.

"Is that an order, Admiral?"

"I'm an Admiral without a fleet, Lieutenant. The chain of command above me in my entire continent is dead either due to Gamilas Planet Bomb attacks, general bombardment or Operation M."

Taylor leaned closer to Kodai and ran her gaze over his expression, studied the junior officer intently before backing off.

"I'm a political appointee, listed as Co-Captain on the ship's manifest. Meaning I'm an expandable civilian collaborator. Speak to me like one."

Kodai cleared his throat.

"By your leave. Taylor Rose Trois. Born June 12, NCC 2179. Graduated from the Earth Federation Space Forces North America Officer Cadet School Naval Logistics in 2194. Ranked twentieth out of a class of forty-nine."

"Okay," Taylor said with a wry smile. "So far, so inoffensive. Now hit me with the juicy parts."

"I'd rather decline. Even considering your unique circumstances, you're still a superior officer and newly posted to this base."

"Base, Lieutenant? In all likelihood I'll be spending a long time with you on a warship by the end of today."

Kodai looked lost, and his professional mask broke when he spoke to Taylor.

"But the Kirishima isn't due to dock on Earth for another three months."

"I wasn't speaking of the Kirishima. Don't give me that look, Lieutenant. Now, the juicy parts. Might as well know what kind of rumors are floating around."

Kodai's jaw tightened, before he hit a series of buttons and the elevator came to a halt. The warm soft lighting was replaced by the harsh red glare of emergency lighting, which buried Taylor's face under a shadow cast by her cap.

"For the sake of your privacy, Ma'am."

"How thoughtful. Continue please."

"At the same time when Operation M was launched, your supply convoy from the Moon to the fleet fighting in Pluto was intercepted by a Gamilas force that sallied from a previously unknown base on Titan, one of Jupiter's moons. The entire fleet was destroyed, bar yourself who was found on a lifepod that was picked up by Commander Juzo Okita. At that time, you were a junior grade Lieutenant who just got her bars."

"But after that, when I awoke in a North American med ward, I found myself promoted to Fleet Admiral, since I was the only personnel in the entire NA Earth Federation Forces who held a rank above the NCOs still alive," Taylor cut in. "But that's not the worse part floating around."

"You sure you wish for me to continue, Ma'am?"

"Make it quick. Or Fleet Security will get real mad."

"Aye-aye, " Kodai swallowed nervously. "For the first two weeks of your rehabilitation, you refused to see anyone and swung between yelling incoherently and uncontrolled bawling. The nurses and mental health professionals noted that your speech patterns were more suitable for a twelve year old girl, rather than an eighteen year old junior officer. You also spoke North American English rather than Earth Common almost exclusively, in a form which fell out of common use since the founding of the Earth Federation some hundred fifty years ago. "

"Earth Federation psychologists diagnosed me with PTSD alongside the general label of Planet Bomb Syndrome for anyone who survived the Gamilas bombardment but went cuckoo."

Kodai clenched his fist as it hovered above his sidearm, when he stared at Taylor who stood in the darkened parts of the elevator.

"I must make you uneasy, considering your reaction," Kodai immediately removed his hand away from his holster. "Thank you for going so far for me, Kodai."

"You're welcome, Admiral."

Kodai pressed the buttons again, and kept his gaze fixed on the wall as he spoke.

"After six months, you finally was deemed well enough to resume your duties under periodic supervision and medication to suppress your delusions. Though you did develop an unusual habit."

"That I decorate my office with superhero media and sketch?" Taylor chuckled. "It reminds me of home...well what I think home was."

Taylor dug into her jacket, before she removed a sketchbook and handed it over to Kodai. He took it with thanks, and his brows arched when he saw the drawings within.

"A superhero with a mobile suit? And he names himself Hero? Not very imaginative was he?"

"One of the first and greatest Tinkers ever! Hero died a martyr, but he and his robot Genesis saved Moscow from Behemoth and did the most damage to an Endbringer ever! Today on Red Square, there's-"

Taylor's eyes twinkled as she spoke, and Kodai found his smile reappeared this time with more genuine affection before the doors opened and Taylor shut her lips audibly.

"Regardless of our future postings, I'm sure we can speak more about these heroes you like so much about, Ma'am."

/x/

My eyes finally opened, and as I allowed my gaze to explore the room randomly my heart sank when I noticed the relatively ancient equipment in my ward.

I was no stranger to med wards, being a member of Earth Fleet Tenku. And since I was not in the afterlife presumably, I had expected to find myself in a ward. But not something quite so primitive however. I struggled to raise my arm, when I heard a chair being pushed behind and large warm hands grasp my own.

Wait? Did my hands shrink?

"Taylor?"

Dad? I'm on Earth Bet? Earth Bet is real? What the everloving fuck in going on?!

"Taylor, you're probably really confused right now. You're at an hospital. Twelve hours ago you were at a bank with your mom when a robbery happened. Things went sour, and-"

Dad paused, and I started to realize Mom was nowhere to be found.

"A bomb went off. We're still trying to locate Annette."

/x/

So, this was it. That fateful decision to blow off Emma and leave her clique two weeks after we entered high school led me here. To bleed out in a filthy locker, after a futile attempt to fight off someone stronger than me led her to show her teeth and cut me against the edges of the locker before shoving me in.

" _I can use someone like you, Tay_ ,"

Emma said to me, a year and half ago. All smug and self assured. Like so many adversaries that faced off against the arrayed might of three Earths, before they got blown up. Difference of course I wasn't playing a video game some Tinker made before he moved on to greater things, nor was I in a dream where I a lot older, and self-assured because I knew exactly what was coming, and had full confidence I had people who can handle it even if

Here on Earth Bet, in _reality?_ I cannot tell my former bestie to take a hike just because people in Earth Fleet Tenku would be ashamed to learn I was part of a bullying clique, and get away with it.

Real life has consequences, and this time it meant I became the target of rumors and _pranks_ instead of someone else. Life is a lot more complicated than a video game and dream, no matter how vivid or grand the scale.

On the other hand, there was some small satisfaction that the CQC lessons I've picked up here and there from Sosuke, Ryoma and the others worked. I lacked the height, mass and strength to actually pull Sophia's arm off her sockets when she tried to drag me into this damnable locker like Ryoma taught me, but she never saw that shoulder push coming. That look on her face when she almost lost her grip on me was so satisfying, and I almost believed I was someone important.

Until Sophia cut me against the rusted sides of the locker anyway. Helplessness. Thy name is Ta-

"Fumofu!"

I'm hearing the catchphrase of a stuffed animal mascot as I lay dying. Well, a stuffed bear in a flak jacket isn't too bad for my last thought.

"Fumo! Fumomomo. Fu!"

For the last time, Sosuke. Fix that speaker on the mech playing as a stuffed toy already. I don't want my last conversation to be-

"Gimme that," A feminine voice, authoritative and hard replaced the high-pitched catchphrases of the mascot in my imagination. "Hey Taylor! Still alive and kicking?"

Oh, of all the loose cannons in the entire fleet. Why did my dying hallucination have to be about her?

"Address me as _Admiral_ , Ange."

"Still as prickly as ever," I could almost hear Ange's smile as she continued. " Y'know. Technically, I outrank you. Being royalty and in charge of my own faction and all."

I'm not getting into a shouting match with my imagination!

"You didn't imagine us, Admiral."

That soft-spoken tone that belies the sardonic heat of a beam rifle. The image of a pale-skinned girl with metal-grey hair in a brown lace dress flooded my vision.

Huh, this is a very vivid delusion. Well, no reason not to play along since I'm going to die. Time to enter character, Taylor. Like you always did in those dreams.

"Nine?"

"It's been four years since Commander Okita's memorial, hasn't it? When you disappeared without a trace?" I recalled Nine's pouting face as the smell of burning metal and sparks overwhelmed me. "We all missed you."

The rusted hinges of the locker screamed when the door was ripped out, and the vile contents I was buried in tumbled out along with me into the soft waiting arms of Bonta-kun. I stared at the plate sized eyes that adorned the face that was a cross between a teddy bear and mouse, and sighed as I recognized the Asian woman in black-white camouflage who brushed away the filth that clung to me before she sprayed some kind of foam onto the cuts on my shoulder and arms.

"Sergeant-Major Mao?" I croaked out, amazed at how hoarse I sound. Mao frowned through her camo paint as she gently poured some water from her canteen.

"I'm a second left now," Mao's frown deepened as she shone a flashlight over me. "Now that I've seen you up close, you're a lot tinier and younger than I remembered."

I snorted, and almost spoke before I gulped down sips of water when Bonta-kun poured some of his canteen to wash my face. I cracked open my eyes wider, and looked around at the familiar faces, in not so familiar surroundings. My gaze settled on a woman with deep purple hair in twin ponytails and a similar camouflage, distinguished from the Mithril soldiers by a cloth patch on her flak jacket that depicted an European dragon being run through by a sword.

"Salia," I said as I struggled to my feet. I was soaked as Sosuke pulled out yet more canteens of water from Bonta-kun, and I almost flinched when Salia glared at me.

"Salia," Mao warned." We're on a rescue mission-"

I held out a hand at Mao, as I returned Salia's glare despite my shaking knees. Damn the cold.

"What's with the death glare, Salia? Did you mistake me for Ange?"

"We were observing you for the past week, as Nine and Inez worked to confirm if you're really the person we've been looking for," Salia said. "Personally, I was worried if you had been broken by what you've undergone. I'd be so disappointed if you were."

"Am I _broken_ , Salia?"

Salia swooped in to hold me as my knees finally gave way. A small smile lingered on her lips.

"Broken? Yes. Disappointed? No. You broke _correctly_ , Taylor. Glad to have you back with us."

"So," I looked around and noticed a lack of angry blondes with red eyes despite having heard her voice, "where's Ange? I heard her just now."

I winced as I felt Salia's grip tightened, and I was reminded of the mutual grudges between Salia and Ange. And more importantly, how Salia was as violent as any person raised as a child soldier.

"Sorry," Salia muttered and relaxed her grip. "Ange's in the Vilkiss."

Okay Salia. There's being cheeky, and then there's this. But before I could ask where's the Vilkiss, my ears rang as the hiss of burning air followed by a red flash in my peripheral vision answered my question. Sosuke, ever the professional soldier, darted into the auditorium and up the walls. The large windows, filthy and cracked, still offered me a bird's eye view of the surroundings which allowed me to observe my target and then some. Up in the sky, I saw the Vilkiss. All twenty feet of white-gold frame with red lines running through it's sleek humanoid body, while rainbow exhaust burned brightly beneath the wings. The white mech hauled a black rifle with a bayonet to it's chest, before it fired off several blasts of red positron beams downwards that screamed across the night.

I looked downwards at Ange and Vilkiss' prey, and saw a bizzare halberd wielding machine that had a human upper half shaped like Armmaster's gunmetal suit complete with mouth and beard formed from some unknown synthetic hair. Beneath the waist, a motorbike with wheels that glowed like strobe lights. Strands of the beard detached as the red beam closed in, and a temporary forcefield halted the positron beam long enough for the hybrid mech to reverse out of harm's way when the red beams dug into the earth. Sosuke used Bonta-kun to shield me as the shockwave from the blast and the wheeled-mech's retreat shattered the dirty glass, but I pushed above the mascot's furry arms and saw the wrecked street. A pall of smoke and fire rose up from the trail left behind by the titanic wheels when they reversed, while a sludge of tar and cement was left behind where the Vilkiss' beam had struck.

"It's happening again," I muttered. "The hell left behind after the street fighting in both the AD and UC dimensions."

"And it's very real," I turned back to Bonta-kun and heard Nine's voice from a very familiar white rectangle stuffed into his flak-jacket. "Don't avert your eyes anymore."

"So I've triggered," I felt my sense of reality crumble, my words sounded hollow even to myself. "And I'm projecting stuff from my childhood to reality."

"It hurts, really." I'm just glad Nine wasn't here in the flesh-well, synthetic flesh. "If you think we're all products of your imagination."

The handheld console, that I've spent so many nights on before it's batteries died for good. I kept it as a memento of Mom after she disappeared during a botched robbery that ended with a bomb going off. The pocket that held the console twitched, and I instinctively reached out to grab it when it fell towards the floor.

"I'll prove we're very real," Nine huffed through the handheld. "Grip onto it with all your strength!"

I hissed in pain after I accepted Nine's dare, as small needles emerged from the sides and pricked my right hand. I opened my mouth to protest, then it was left agape when the console's pinpricks turned into legs and crawled up my arm to my face. I screamed before it broke into glowing, translucent pieces and swarmed my face. I shut my eyes, and the pieces felt like a cold drizzle against my face as they melted into me.

"Primary user identified."

I didn't listen to the rest of the preamble, or the welcome message from the voice in my head. It wasn't so much the content of the message as who was speaking it that got my attention.

"Mom?"

The stiff coldness melted from the voice, as I felt and heard Annette Hebert's awkward warmth speak to me.

"Hi there, Ace," Mom's little pet name for me after I got my Ace status in the "game". "You might want to open your eyes. Because you've got big trouble coming your way."

It was a whole new world I saw after I reopened my eyes again. Even obscured by the smoke, with the sirens blaring in my ears I saw Vilkiss and the half-bike robot it was facing off again. Their frames were clearly outlined to me, and numbers appeared in the corner of my vision when I focused on them. Instinctively, I knew all I need to know to keep Ange and her Vilkiss in the fight. I looked at the half-bike robot, and the word Defiant I appeared on the top right of my vision HUD. But as I tried to focus on the pilot's identity, I found the name obscured.

Well, not completely. _Armsmaster_ appeared to me, bright as day. Oh shit, Ange's tangled with the lead hero of the Brockton Bay Protectorate!

"You can see all the details we've managed to gather. Also, Taylor,"

Mom's voice sharpened, and I felt a jolt in the back of my mind.

"Sector E8! Incoming!"

A particularly smoky corner of the street flickered, and I saw a black humanoid robot with a design that screamed Arm Slave turned its head towards me. The cowl it wore gave way, and it released a bolt from a crossbow hidden beneath.

/x/

Danny Hebert sat up from his desk at the Dockworker's Union office as he heard the distant rumbling, and he pushed his chair away as he saw the night sky lit up. He walked over to a drawer full of files that had a layer of dust over them, and blew away the dust before he ran his fingers diagonally over the numbers on the files. The drawer rumbled before it moved to the side, and Danny strode down the stairs revealed.

 _Just as you predicted, Annette. Just as you predicted._


	2. Chapter 2

Admiral (Worm/Super Robot Wars V)

Recon 2

/x/

The bolt from the black AS screeched its advance through the air, smoke trailed behind it when the projectile closed in on me. Sosuke fired a shot with Bonta-kun's shotgun, before he yanked me down towards the floor and we landed with me using Bonta-kun as a cushion. I pulled myself away from the embrace of the mini-AS that was wrapped in fluffy fur, which smelled of cordite and steel and looked upwards. Turns out it was a bad move, as the heat of the shotgun shells had drawn the crossbow bolt away from us and into an explosion which ripped off the roof of the auditorium. Pain seared my eyes shut and my back and waist went numb as I was thrown onto the floor from the force of the blast. I scrambled onto my feet and flailed around wildly until I felt two pairs of hands grab onto my arms as they flailed about.

"Really, staring at an explosion without any kind of protection, and-"

"then swinging about like some clueless recruit who just ate his first flashbang. We expected better."

Huh, Salia and Mao telling me off at the same time. I felt myself being sat against the wall, before a soothing coolness washed over my burning eyes. While the cooling effect was certainly preferable to the pain, not knowing the cause of it was concerning. Thus, like any good teenager I did the right thing and asked my mommy.

"Mom?"

"Not now, Taylor. Applying painkillers while fixing smashed bones requires concentration. "The stiffness I felt in my waist and back evaporated as Mom spoke. "There, better. I fixed your hip bones and your eyes. Try not to be caught in a high-explosive blast next time?"

"Wait, my back was broken?"

"Among other things," Mom couldn't keep the smugness out of her tone while she coninued. "Fortunately, being inside you allows me to fix, prevent and improve certain things. Now, open your eyes."

Gingerly, my eyelids cracked open and I sighed in relief when there's no noticeable degradation in my sight. Then the air to my right flickered, and I saw a translucent female figure with a visible white outline around her appear. My chest tightened for a minute when I stared at the willowy woman in flowing white pantsuit uniform with curly, long black hair. Then I lunged forward, only to grab nothing but air.

"Sorry, Taylor," Mom spoke softly, the same tone she uses when she announces bad news. "I'm just a projection. Thought it'd be easier to talk if you can see me, rather than just being a voice in your head."

I turned away from Mom, as I rubbed the snow and dust from my eyes.

"But if it makes you uncomfortable, I can-"

"It's fine!" That's a little louder than I'd like, "I'm fine seeing you like this. Really."

Mom smiled at me, before a small screen appeared on the lower left of my vision and Nine glowered at me. I gave a stiff smile at the gray-haired, pale skinned android in lacy black gothic clothes who kept her look of displeasure up for another four seconds before she reverted to her usual disinterested look.

Well, not totally disinterested. Her eyes at least smiled with an unspoken welcome. Hard to believe her body was forged with stolen scraps from parts around various workshops.

"Sorry if I'm disturbing anything," Her grey eyes flicked towards Mom before they refocused on me. "But you've got two hostile robots piloted by parahumans out to end you."

Another screen appeared below Nine's, and I winced as I saw the wrecked streets of Downtown Brockton. Ange in the Vilkiss alternated between bursts of red beams from her positron cannon at Armsmaster's Defiant, while also attempting to tag the black AS with fire from her head-mounted autocannons. The Defiant's motorcycle half laid abandoned in the ruins of a office block, the front wheel reduced to slag while the upper half of Armsmaster's machine hovered on a jet. But even more worrying was how the Defiant gradually dodged the oncoming beam fire with greater efficiency and a few of his halberd strikes found their mark, only stopped by the red glow of Vilkiss' Michael energy shield. I almost yelled out in worry as the black AS raised its crossbow to unleash another explosive bolt, before the shot went wide as it dodged an electrified strike from the Defiant's halberd.

"Armsmaster and the Defiant won't do that. Kill me that is," I said with more certainty than I felt. "I like Ange, but she's just as likely to have started the fight with Armsmaster."

"Fine. Point noted," Nine said with a face full of doubt, a look mirrored by Mom. Salia and Mao whispered in a corner, but I didn't have to hear what they're saying to guess its contents. "But what about Shadow Stalker in her Assassin AS? Neither you nor Sosuke were hostile or any threat, but she still fired an exploding crossbow bolt at you without provocation."

Bile rose in my throat at Nine's words, and I focused on the Assassin. Sure enough, where it was once blanked out, the pilot and machine name was now clear as day.

Machine name- Arc-P 009 Assassin

Pilot- Shadow Stalker

The screen that showed the battle froze and Mom's eyes glowed as I felt her working inside me.

"Unknown AI is retaking control of downtown's PRT cameras," Mom frowned." Suggest that we complete extraction of target and retreat to rendevous point."

"Nine, Mom," I interjected. "Your mission here was to rescue Admiral Taylor Trois of the Earth Federation North American Command, wasn't it?"

"We're here to rescue you, Tay-"

Good. Exactly what I wanted to hear.

"Nine," I interjected, "You promised to respect my rank and authority, during the voyage home from Iscandar didn't you?"

"You were discharged from your commission when Earth Fleet Tenku returned home, Admiral."

"And it's irrelevant, Nine. Since you're a civilian collaborator rather than a solider of the Earth Federation."

Nine's eyes pleaded as she turned to Mom. That look on her face when I corner her! Such nostalgia!

"Annette. Convince your child not to do something stupid dangerous?"

"Nine. As the first prototype of the discontinued Favored series of the Bio-Androids, I will offer my expert opinion as someone who both watched her grow up when she traveled to your dimensions and raised her."

It's kinda funny watching Mom take a deep breath despite being a projection, or Nine bury her face in her hands.

"You should know better, Nine," Mom chided her fellow android. "She's a vital part of Earth Fleet Tenku, even if her circumstances were...unusual. She's going to do something stupid-dangerous."

Stupid-dangerous. So dangerous, it's stupid. The way Mom said it, you can hear the hyphen and her pride in us. That's how the Earth Fleet Tenku did things, and was the reason one of our number split a parasite the size of a gas giant with a tomahawk.

"You make it sound like our motto, Annette."

"You're one to talk," Mom laughed, "when your partners are Chitose and Soji. Not that you're the paragon of restraint and reason yourself."

Nine coughed into her hand before she turned to me. Did I mention she's adorable when she blushes?

"I'll listen to your suggestions, Taylor. But I reserve the right to refuse if it's too stupid-dangerous, and will forcibly have you transported by Salia's Cleopatra to the Tuuatha de Danann mothership in that case."

Generous benchmark. You're too kind, Nine.

"First, Salia," I whispered into her ear, and despite her raised eyebrows Salia nodded in agreement. "Before that though, can you get Cleopatra and teleport us to the Tuuatha first?"

"Proposal," Mom cut in. "Taylor, can we stop by your dad's office? We've got something prepared for you."

Huh, that's a surprise. My scowl must be nasty considering Mom's guilty expression,

"Dad knows." I said flatly. "For how long?"

"Taylor, baby. I've always been an android. He knew from the beginning."

"You played me for a fool," I sighed. "You and Dad."

"We had to," Mom placed a hand on my shoulder. Despite seeing her touch me, I felt nothing but the wind on my shoulder. "There were people watching. Nasty, dangerous people. I thought that by playing the role of a normal family, we could throw them off our scent. We certainly thought we did before I got blown up by that knock-off Wave Motion Bomb three years ago."

A Wave Motion Bomb? How did- the Cleopatra appeared over the ruined roof turned skylight in a blink of blue light to interrupt my thoughts, the cyan lines glowed as they ran over the smooth black surface of the Ragnamail's frame. It's mechnical wings spread proudly and the blue light washed over me as Salia prepared to teleport us. Mom walked in front of me, her hands behind her back before she turned around and stretched out hers. I hesitated, before I reached out to her.

"You don't have to do this you know."

My hand froze midair, as I glared at Mom. She whispered that one sentence to me, and to me only.

"Mom?"

"You've been through so much, "Mom whispered. Her voice was completely absent of the almost girlish perkiness she had seconds ago, only a world weariness that seemed as old the stars remained. "And I've witnessed it together with you. Just say the word, and I'll whisk you and Danny away to somewhere safe."

"Mom. _Shut it_. I'm not running away."

"Can't blame me for trying, can you Taylor?"

I felt the warmth of her hands for a fleeting moment as she grasped mine before it disappeared with the night breeze. Then, Cleopatra's light engulfed us.

/x/

Salia heaved a sigh of relief as she appeared in front of the small whitewashed building that was the Dockworker's Union office and saw Taylor along with that Android Annette run towards it. Seeing no enemies appear on the Cleopatra's HUD, Salia turned her attention to other matters as she opened radio contact with the Vilkiss.

"Ange. This is Salia here. Sitrep now."

Salia winced once the static cleared up, and her ears rang at Ange's howls of rage over the radio.

"That little bitch! I'm going to grab that crossbow of hers and shove it up her cu-"

"Ange!"

"I've heard you the first time, Salia!" Ange snarled. "What?! Stick-Boy here suddenly got better after I wrecked his bike!"

"I'm sending you a message in case the enemy is eavesdropping on us. Use the Vilkiss' computer to decode the message. Taylor said it should work."

"You're sending me a coded message _now_?" Ange muttered. "Decoding it."

Salia took to the skies, her knuckles turned white as she increased her grip on the Cleopatra's controls. Red blinking lights appeared in the top right of her HUD's, and Salia frowned as the numbers increased.

"Ange! Hurry up!" Cleopatra blinked out of existence and reappeared above the Vikiss in time to deflect a halberd strike from the Defiant aimed at the white frame's left wing. "We've got multiple enemy reinforcements closing in fast."

"Hard to read through all this blood," Salia's chest tightened at Ange's remark. "But I've got the gist of it. They're a bunch of slaves to PR aren't they?"

The Vilkiss darted higher up into the sky, a golden sheen coated over the white, blue and gold frame of the mech as the shoulders opened up to reveal a pair of turbines. A crossbow bolt from the Assassin melted away as it touched the golden glow, while the Defiant jetted backwards when its halberd blade got turned into a ball of twisted metal upon contact with the Vilkiss. A screech of torn metal, and the Defiant brandished the polearm once more when a brand new blade materialized from the shaft.

"Ange!" Salia screamed over the radio. "Don't you use the Space Time Convergence Cannons in a built up are-"

"Attention so-called heroes of the Protectorate!" Ange's voice boomed across Brockton Bay. "I'll leave aside the fact that you attacked me without provocation or that you're ganging up on me."

"You shot first!" Armsmaster's voice over the Defiant's own speakers felt like a whisper after Ange's announcement. "Surrender, Villain!"

"As if," Ange's breezy dismissal had Salia tense up before she caught herself. The eye slits of the Vilkiss glowed red as they focused on Shadow Stalker's Assassin. "But considering it's me you're facing, I don't blame you for seeking safety in numbers."

The Assassin raised its crossbow, but Ange kept talking.

"But for Shadow Stalker to attack a school and several civilians? That's just unthinkable."

Before another shot could be released, the Assassin slid backwards on the street to dodge a stab from the Defiant and raised a trail of fresh rubble. The Defiant rocketed towards the smaller mech, which pulled out a knife and continued to fall back against the rain of blows from the Defiant's polearm.

"So you _are_ Shadow Stalker," Armsmaster spat out through the speakers. "Even if you remain silent and block your phone, half of the moves you're using were taught by either Miss Militia or me!"

The Assassin dropped low to dodge a thrust aimed at it's head, before there was a white flash and a roar of thunder when a large ball of lightning disgorged from the bottom of the halberd's shaft and swallowed the top half of Shadow Stalker's machine. The Assassin was hauled by the orb of light, suspended in midair by the ball before it disappeared with a pop. The Assassin then crumbled onto the floor like a puppet with cut strings, the sharp edges along it's frame melted dull and it's cowl left in strips that fluttered sadly which barely held together. Smoke rose from the hulk of the Assassin, the joints of the black machine groaned and screeched as it struggled to stand. The Defiant held its halberd high above the head of the Assassin as it knelt.

"Shadow Stalker," Armsmaster's voice trembled slightly. "You will dismount, surrender and tell me where did you get your mech from."

"Well, guess I'll be going then," Ange huffed as both the Cleopatra and Vilkiss turned blue. "Guess the Admiral's trust in you guy's weren't completely misplaced."

"White mech," Armsmaster said to the blue frame of the Vilkiss. "You'll-"

"See ya!"

Armsmaster kept his weapon fixed on the prone form of the Assassin and watched as the two Ragnamails disappeared in a flash, before he began to prod the chest of Shadow Stalker's mech with his halberd.

"Dismount, Stalker. From this distance I'm able to clearly detect you're barely shaken, and that your machine 's basic functions are working just fine."

The Defiant pulled the halberd back slightly.

"Or do you require me to open your machine _forcibly_?"

Armsmaster frowned at the continued radio silence from his soon to be ex-Ward, before a ringing alarm took his attention as the HUD zeroed in on a slim teenage girl in a black jacket and jeans. She wore a simple ski mask, and red hair flowed down behind her neck.

 _New villain cape_?

"Attention unknown Parahuman. This is a legitimate arrest by the Protect-"

The voice was whispered, but harsh. Armsmaster stiffened as he swore it was right next to his ear.

"Rise and rise again. Until lambs become lions."

The Defiant wasted no time and plunged towards the prone Assassin when Armsmaster saw the energy readings of the black mech spike, but the polearm fell short as a multicolored field flickered and sparked when it stopped the Defiant's blade cold. Melted edges reformed, sharpened and renewed while the frowning face mask of the Assassin seemed to leer with renewed menace. The Defiant's hover jets sparked back to life when metal turned to smoke, and both the Assassin and the new redhead cape melted away like mist in the morning.

/x/

I could hear my parents long before I saw them, when Mom rushed in after me after we arrived at the Union office. Mom didn't bother with the doors as she phased through the entrance, but I had no problems finding Dad's hidden entrance after I heard my mother alternate between sobbing and squealing in delight. At least she hasn't started spewing some horribly embarrassing pet name for Dad yet. Speaking of strangely emotional androids.

"Nine. Are you recording this?"

"I assure you," Nine's snickering was rather audible. "It's strictly for my own personal study."

"I swear Nine. If you do record this, I will find you and _delete_ you."

"Taylor?"

Dad's voice.

I flipped off Nine, before I rushed down the stairs in the office to find Dad's sweat soaked face being wiped by Mom with a handkerchief. His thinned hair was more frazzled then usual, and he was dressed in light blue overalls covered in dust and grease. He stood in the dark room with only the light from his laptop providing any illumination. The room was musty and felt restricting. I frowned as I stared at the soaked silk handkerchief my projected android mother should not be physically capable of interacting with.

"Mom. I thought you're just a projection?!"

"Still am a projection, Ace," Mom winked, before the lights suddenly flooded the room at Mom's flourish of her hands. "But also much more."

The sudden burst of light blinded me for awhile, before I slowly peeled my eyes opened to a sight that left me breathless. Steel plated walls and floors stretched to up to forty feet, with disassembled machines littered in every corner. Drones the size of a medium size dog flew around carrying tools and hummed a cheery tune in Mom's voice as they worked. One even offered me a drink, and I sipped from the white plastic bottle as I watched the obvious reason this place exists.

"Taylor," Mom placed her hands on my shoulders and I felt her warm breath on the back of my neck. " The reason why I went missing this past three years. Because I was completing this."

Red, black with streaks of white across the chest and limbs. This forty feet giant of steel was strapped down on a flatbed at the end of the hangar while the drones finished up on it. Twin cannons mounted on its arms were polished by the drones, while i heard the roar and saw the flare when twin streams of white hot flames burst from behind the machine. My throat was dry as I drank in the simple vision of this steel giant, before I saw its head and buried my face in my hands.

" Mom. Why does this robot's head look like me when I was in the New Correct Century? It even had my hat!"

" it took me so long to get your lips correct," Mom sighed before she perked up and beamed at me. "Behold Taylor! The Polaris."

Dad walked up to Mom, his face haggard but beamed with pride.

" We hoped that this day would never come, Taylor. But after the bombing attack I knew that it was a matter of time before things came to a head. Therefore, we pray that the Polaris - incomplete as she is-will guard you and your future."

I stood and stared at Polaris, the mechanical titan that was like a reflection of me. I turned halfway back to my parents before Mom yanked me and Dad behind her. The roof of the hangar rippled, before a ten foot long crossbow bolt appeared and exploded into a fireball. This time I was prepared, and dropped and covered my head as the bolt went off. I waited for the ringing in my ears to dim before I opened my eyes.

The Polaris laid in flaming chunks, while Dad groaned as he sat on the floor with his face covered in soot. Mom was nowhere to be found, and then the Assassin floated downwards larger than before. I did not know why a Protectorate Heroine wanted me dead so badly, but even as i felt Shadow Stalkers hate I met the Assassins red glare head on.

" Taylorrrr!"

That voice!

"Sophia!?"

Sophia Hess is a Ward. This explains why my plan did not work. If Sophia was not just a Ward but a candidate for their Hero's Legacy mech program, then the rot is from the top.

" Taylor."

"Mom?"

" Call out to Polaris. Do not accept your fate or go into the night."

I pointed at the burning hulk.

" There lies the robot you and Dad built for me."

" Taylor. Steel is completed in fire. And you complete it. Remember what you have seen. Live once again the flame that ignited a path to the future!"

The hangar burned, the flames roared and iron groaned under the smoke and heat. But a spark in my heart burned hotter than all those distractions around me.

I clenched my fist.

" Come forth! Polaris!"  
/x/

Shadow Stalker snarled as she saw the backdraft swallow Hebert, only for the flames to gather into a ball before that ugly robot she wrecked burst out of it sparkling new.

" This is bullshit. I wrecked that rustbucket!"

"Patience, Soph," Shadow Stalker turned to her redheaded copilot. "This will be a good test for the Mashin Assassin, don't you agree?" 


	3. Chapter 3

Recon 3

/x/

My world was red and aflame, but within my chest beat a white-hot heat like the stars.

Okay, that sounded like a cheddar factory when it comes to cheesiness, but it's the truth.

I looked around the cockpit, except rather than the complicated mess of interlinked systems and gauges that was the Hayabusa or the Cosmo Zero's dashboard, it resembled an empty room, with walls that curved outwards. A cushioned seat was behind me, while Mom stood on the podium behind my seat grinning away. The curved walls and floor flickered, and then I saw clear as day the fireball we were currently trapped in. Screens popped up besides me, clearly listing the status of the Polaris with figures I somehow understood instinctively.

"Mom," I asked even as I read the status reports of the Polaris' system. " Is the fact I somehow know what the hell is a tachyon engine a source of concern?"

"None at all, Ace." Mom beamed while she chirpped out my pet name.. "After all, despite being in sleep mode since you and I were blasted across dimensions into the New Correct Century till now, I was absorbing all the knowledge and tech you encountered like a sponge."

I nodded with the feigned interest the way only a teenager could as Mom prattled on, and zoomed in on the screen that showed Dad still sat on the floor beyond my fiery cocoon, bleeding and filthy.

"Dad needs help," His vitals appeared on the screen, with a helpful countdown to how long he has before any permanent damage is done. "He's got five minutes. He needs medical treatment at the Tuuatha de Danann's med bay soon."

"No local doctors?"

"Sophia Hess is a Ward with access to the Hero Legacy robots. I find it hard to trust people here."

Mom squinted, as the cameras focused on the Assassin.

"Thats not a PRT machine. Taylor. The material used is not available on Earth Bet. That said, "

Mom bared her teeth, and Polaris rumbled in response to my anxiety.

"They hurt Danny, Taylor. Five minutes you say? Five minutes is all we need."

/x/

 _Hiss._

The sound of Assassin's being comforted Sophia, and despite her tense posture her eyes were serene. Sophia sighed with satisfaction while she settled in to wait.

Sophia had eaten and drank only four hours ago, and yet her tummy trembled with hunger while she licked her parched lips. Her hands shook, as she gripped the controls of the Assassin which leaned forward slightly in response to it's mistress' ministrations. Sophia purred as she saw the cameras view dip along with the machine's movements. There was a slickness and feral grace that accompanied Assassin's movements, its very presence. The metal limbs that rested beneath the serrated plates of armor along it's frame twitched in anticipation, like predatory flesh rather than cold steel.

Cold pragmatism and the element of surprise had it's day, Sophia decided. Dark mech and mistress remained content to hover above their desired prey, like crows awaiting a gazelle to expire in the Savannah. Assassin and all its trappings that had been gifted to her started to whirl to life, her HUD soon littered with windows everywhere informing her of each minute development of the Polaris she had come to dismember. The onboard computer started to suggest multiple avenues of attack, retreat and capture condescendingly. Like she was some newborn pup, still weaning off her mother's tit.

Sophia dismissed the prattling of the AI with a flick of her wrist, much to the annoyance of her co-pilot. But Assassin understood, and kept a silent vigil for the hunt.

 _Good boy_ ,

Sophia _knew_.

It was hidden at first, this knowledge-this birthright- that was buried beneath all those extraneous layers that made up the person that was Sophia Hess. Track Star. Daughter to a failed mother. Sister to siblings whose names now were pushed out of her mind. Would be instigator or ultimate tormentor to that beanpole Hebert for a person Emma insisted was hidden beneath. Friend to Emma, who had proven at least a desire for strength and cunning. Hero who brought swift street justice to the undeserving, probationary Ward who operated under the chain and balls of Armsmaster and Miss Militia.

All these held her back. All these melted away this chilly afternoon when that woman with the long black hair and platinum-blue clothes left Assassin for her. Sophia had been cautious, her mind and temper ready to boil over as she prepared whatever excuse she can give to her Protectorate overseers regarding her dislocated arm when the woman approached her after she parted ways with Emma for home. Sophia had reached for her spare bolts she kept hidden as stabbing weapons in cases of danger, as she felt a sudden chill at the mysterious woman's appearance.

Then the woman pulled back a veil in the air, and Sophia saw the world for what it really was when Assassin was revealed to her. A thief in the night, hidden in the bright of day. A machine twenty feet tall stood in the lawn of an abandoned house of a quiet neighbourhood, yet no one noticed it until it was made known to her only.

When Sophia clambered onboard that chilly and silent afternoon, Assassin revealed itself to her. The controls were simple, and when she strapped herself into the seat and leaned forward the walls closed in and Sophia found her arms move along with the machine. Assassin's chest rose and fell with her own. The dashboard, handles and seat felt almost redundant, like it was an obsolete design the makers never got around to removing.

 _Like much of myself_.

Thus, Shadow Stalker was made whole.

"Soph," Emma said to her annoyance at being disturbed. "Get ready. The flames around the Polaris had died down."

Shadow Stalker idly fingered the shards of her PRT made mask, and wondered if they were sharp enough to draw blood before she refrained. The failure to finish off the white mech with the blood soaked wings-Vilkiss- was due to her not anticipating the Defiant being ready for use despite prior knowledge it was out of the workshop and cleared for use. At least Emma was straight to the point, rather than annoying like the AI.

Assassin notched it's bow, and Sophia tensed as the shapes and colors of the target was revealed by the flames as they died. Orange-red lines over charcoal black metal. A military peaked cap with a stylized anchor badge and Hebert's face carved into a mask. Sophia giggled at the sight of her target's likeliness on the colossus she planned to scrap, as she raised the prepped crossbow at the center-mass of the Polaris. Should she aimed at Hebert's face? The cap? Perhaps that cross pattern on the chest that centered around the diamond on the chest? Or those pillar like legs which are a stark contrast to the sublime and slender shape of Assassin's own. Or the twin turbines that nestled partially exposed in the pauldrons painted white above its shoulders?

"Decisions, decisions."

Sophia paused in anticipation, before she grunted in approval when Emma didn't speak just to fill the silence in the air. Perhaps she understood the importance of ensuring the calm before the storm too?

Then the ground shook as Polaris turned it's head to look at her, once dull eyes now a brilliant blue. Sophia shivered before she let it all out with a single squeeze of the crossbow's trigger.

"Fly! My all-piercing arrow!"

The bolt flew, all iron shaft launched from a machine powered by the Masou Engine.

Masou. The Demon's Clothes. Sophia decided she liked her blows to carry her rage. When Assassin shielded her from the Defiant's attacks, Sophia knew it was no machine.

Sophia willed the bolt forward, her eyes now saw what the arrow saw as it sought out the Polaris. Explosive tip met the matte black of the Polaris' chestplate. An eruption, and Sophia gasped as her face burned from the heat of the explosion.

"No, not yet, " Sophia growled as she saw the Polaris stumble and kneel. Smoke rose from it's chest, but the larger machine remained intact. "Emma, I'm going in for the kill."

"Careful to stay out of it's range, Soph," Emma cautioned as she tapped her copilot's shoulder. Sophia grit her teeth at the sharp pain she felt when her friend who sat behind touched her sore spot. "She got you good before today, and now she's in the Polaris."

"A worm in a can is still a worm, Emma," Sophia snarled. "I'm releasing the Masou Engine."

"I already did just now, Sophia. When I saved you from Armsmaster."

"Not all of it you didn't, Emma."

Assassin hissed, and Emma scowled.

"The Assassin's Armored Slave frame isn't built for-"

" _My machine, my rules_ , Emma."

Sophia reached for a hole that opened in the dashboard. Veins around the cavity throbbed and neon lights flickered with its movements, and Sophia's skin tingled at the chill that blew from it.

"Masou Engine, full power."

Assassin grew again, as fingers turned to talons and its legs turned to razors. The jaws dropped to reveal a maw that held a sickly green flame.

"Emma. You wanted to be strong? Witness the carnage Assassin and I can do when unchained."

Shadow Stalker glided forward, her talons raised spark showers as they tore against the Polaris. Ten. Fifteen. Fifty-five. In half a heartbeat, the claws of the Assassin dug and tore through layers of steel. The right arm of the Polaris lumbered and swung towards Assassin, before Assassin ducked below and grabbed the limb at the elbow. Shadow Stalker panted, and sparks flew while metal screamed when Assassin began to pull at Polaris' arm downwards.

"This is for my shoulder!" Shadow Stalker bellowed through its speakers.

The arm gave way, and amid the shower of sparks and wires Assassin swung the ripped arm as a club. The Polaris drooped below, and the arm clipped against the left solar plexus of its head. Black tresses bloomed outwards like the petals of a flower in full blossom as the peaked cap was knocked on the floor, ingrained instincts took over when Shadow Stalker raised the disarmed Polaris to her face with it's hair. The jaws of the Assassin formed a grotesque mimic of a sneer while it hurled the half arm into the exposed sky.

"All that technology and size, but a worm remained a worm. A smear on the bottom of my shoe."

The Polaris shook as it raised its stump, before Assassin twisted the talons on it's arm and stuck it into the hole. Shadow Stalker shook as she chuckled, both machines pressed their faces together before Assassin began to scrap off the polished, flawless sheet metal on the face of Polaris.

"Oh, Taylor. How considerate of you to have formed the face of your machine to resemble you so. Now I can see your helplessness and despair while I end you."

Sophia heard her heart pound as she saw Polaris' lips quiver, before their ends began to inch upwards into a grin-

"Sophia!" Emma roared, " _You dumb bitch_!"

 _How dare Emma speak to me this_ -

Brilliant blue illuminated the stump where Assassin had sunk it's claws into and Sophia screamed as she felt her arm seared by the light.

"Shock Cannon detected. Wave Motion powered attack in three, two-"

Assassin faded into the fog, and Sophia moaned through the cloud as the pain tore into her core when her immaterial form was carried out of the ruined underground and dropped onto the beach by the wave of light that twisted like a snake. Shadow Stalker sunk into the sand before she emerged twenty feet away, and reformed into a solid state before a ton of steel in the form of a rocket powered fist sunk into Assassin's face before it could stand. Endless sand buried Assassin when Polaris' fist launched it deeper into the cold earth, and Emma snarled as she noticed their machine trapped between Polaris' arm and bedrock beneath the beach.

She turned her head away from the status screen and towards Sophia, and found a broken girl pale with fear who quivered and shook.

"Sophia?"

Something long repressed burst out.

"Let me out. Lemme out lemmeoutlemmeoutlemmeout!"

Emma grabbed Sophia's arms and yanked them away from the console, and the Assassin faded into a red cloud and drifted through the layers of earth upwards. Emma placed her thumb on the neck of Sophia, and kept her finger firmly pressed until she observed the system signal the end of the sedative administration. The redhead caught the drooped head of her friend, and gently set her aside before moving to the front seat.

"Assassin. Code Alpha Beta Alpha November Delta Oscar November Delta Echo Delta. Primary User Switch."

The lights of the stars and Brockton Bay got gradually brighter, before the Assassin left the hole in the earth and Emma saw the Polaris with dual Shock Cannons on its arms primed to fire. Emma paled at the gathered light on the tip of Polaris' guns.

"Taylor," Emma began, "I-"

"Polaris Cannons. Fire!"

Proximity alarms blared in the Assassin's cockpit, as the machine rattled from the beams the passed it only inches away. The sky darkened once more as the Polaris Cannons ceased their roar, and Assassin began to ascend in a leisurely pace. Polaris brandished its guns, but the dark mech didn't cease its actions.

"Emma, I won't miss again."

The air shimmered, and the Cleopatra and Vilkiss appeared. The blue and red machines formed a triangle with the Polaris around the Assassin, blades drawn.

"The First Ones will be very upset," Emma sighed. "But at least it wasn't a complete loss. Isn't it, last daughter of the Gardim?"

"First Ones? Emma you-"

"Bosson Particles detected," Annette intoned. "Jump imminent."

"We will meet again," Emma said as her machine faded. "Very soon."

All three mechs watched at the empty spot where the Assassin once occupied, and Taylor opened a channel with both Ragnamails.

"Salia, Ange. Contact the Axis and confirm the status of the Calculation Unit."

Taylor frowned as she noticed Ange's radio silence, before she scanned the pilot's vitals.

"Tuuatha de Dannan. This is Taylor. Have an ambulance and surgery theatre prepped and ready to go. Also, please ensure there's an AI around to coax the Vilkiss to entrust its mistress to us. Over"

"Admiral, "A soft-spoken female voice responded. "Tessa speaking. Will there be anything else."

"Yes, a biohazard team and the blood bank. Ange will need the blood bank very soon."


	4. Chapter 4

Recon 4

/x/

Bless Tessa and her foresight to send out two machines that already have teleporters inbuilt into their system. As soon as the Cleopatra touched Polaris, the Vilkiss flared its colors to match the other Ragnamail. One second I was standing on the beach, the flashing sirens and lights of the approaching PRT and Brockton Bay's civil defense elements approaching at speed. The next second I was being hailed repeatedly by both Salia and good ol' Richie Mardukas himself. The sound of his clipped British accent almost losing its stiff upper lip is something to savor, despite the fact that the United Kingdom had long ceased to exist in the Universal Century Earth he hails from. Regionalism never dies.

"Admiral Trois, please respond."

Huh, he sounded panicked there. But for good reason. Teleportation can leave the unprepared personnel in a daze. Something about our bodies not realizing they're not a bunch of displaced atoms anymore and failing to respond.

"This is Taylor. And I'm Hebert here for the record."

"Noted, Ms Hebert." Hey, where my rank go? "Please proceed to Bay S1 for docking and debriefing."

Bay S1. The Super Bay. It's still sinking in that I've gotten a super robot at my disposal, something that even most capes do not get. After Hero's success at driving off Behemoth with almost no cape casualties bar himself and the Genesis, it was like every Tinker on Earth Bet underwent another trigger and started to push robot designs of their own or collaborate to make some.

Of course, designs that were able to make full use of the powers of capes was something unknown till now. I shudder to think what happens if the likes of Lung, or the Slaugherhouse Nine were to get their hands on something like the Assassin.

I looked around my cockpit, which offered me an unhindered view of the open sea. The sun had just began to peak above the horizon, and I sighed while I settled against my chair to drink in the view of scarlet clouds cast against a metal blue sky. Polaris automatically started to approach the sea's surface, and the water foamed before the Tuatha de Dannan emerged like Moby Dick taunting Ahab. Rainbows formed as sunlight danced among the spray cast by the sub's emergence, and I turned my attention to Mom who alternated between worried observance of Dad and ensuring Polaris' auto-pilot functioned as it should. Salia in the Cleopatra went ahead of me, with the Villkiss in tow. The angry red that the usually white machine spotted was a cause of worry, but it was something I had to trust Mithril's technical teams to sort out.

I can only pray that Villkiss isn't as mercurial as it's mistress. Instead, I turned to my parents.

"Mom?"

"Kinda busy here, Taylor."

"How's Dad?"

Mom paused, before she flashed me a tired smile. In the excitement of the fight with Assassin, I almost forgot about my Dad being in danger.

"Smoke inhalation is the major concern right now, but Nine's updated me through our neural network that the Tuuatha de Dannann has upgraded it's medical facilities considerably since four years ago. His condition should be manageable since we are already here."

Good. Even Panacea had problems dealing with comas, given she seems unable to deal with brain related issues. Now to deal with the other thing gnawing at me. I ran my hands over the command console to ensure that the mics were off, before I turned to my parents. Dad stirred while he laid in Mom's lap. At least the way his chest rose and fell assured me he was still with us.

"Mom. What are you? And as a follow up question. What am I?"

"I'm a Gardim android, Taylor. Shouldn't that be clear by now?"

"Your fellow android Nine couldn't give birth to me even if she wanted to since she doesn't have the lady bits for it. And unless you or Dad implanted those memories I remember clearly being a total brat as a kid."

"And your Dad and I remember changing your diapers too," Mom smirked as she glanced at my damp pants. Goddamn it! How did she-

"Mom!"

"Other than being your mother, I am also literally inside you, Taylor. You think I won't notice?"

"That's came out wrong, Mom," I said despite the heat in my cheeks. "Good thing I cut the mic feed, won't want all of Mithril thinking my mother made a dirty joke at her daughter's expense."

"Don't wanna hear it-" I cupped my ears with my hands, much to Mom's amusement as she laughed. Despite my embarrassment, I found myself smiling along with her. A potty mouth android mother is better than a blown up dead one.

"Nothing to be shy about though. Almost all pilots lose bladder control during their first battle after a long lull from action, and you haven't fought in this body before."

"Alright, Mom," I folded my arms. "Quit dodging."

"That obvious, huh? Fine, shoot."

I reached for my imaginary holster to brandish my invisible sidearm, much to Mom's amusement.

"Thought you wanted answers, Taylor."

"This isn't easy for myself, Mom. I spent two and a half years in an adult body of a strange woman with memories not my own, thinking I was insane from grief in the ruins of a dying, uncaring world. Finally, I adjusted, found a purpose and even some friends. I settled. I got better, Mom. _I moved on_."

"Taylor..."

Mom reached out for me, but her hand froze inches from my shoulder. Part of me doesn't blame her.

"Then my apartment blew up and I repeated the process of thinking I was nuts after the bank bombing. Did I hallucinate three and a half years of my life? Including the pain and scars? Was Kincade's bread the result of some crossed wiring in my head? Were the tears of laughter that rolled down my cheeks as we laughed ourselves silly at Sosuke's antics a chemical reaction in my noggin? Was the necklace Ange made with two of my teeth to mock me after a brawl with her a product of my imagination? "

" _Taylor._ "

I paused my rant at my mother's tone, before she slid her right hand between my legs, dug into my pants and then placed her fingers beneath my nose. I vomited a little and my eyes watered from the stench. Okay, Mom's crazy.

"Mom! _What the fuck_!"

"Smelled like piss, didn't it?"

"Because it is!"

"Dunno about you Taylor," Through my watery eyes, Mom looked ancient as the morning sun shone on her, " but when I dream of being a pilot of an invincible super robot, pissing myself in battle because Shadow Stalker had ripped off one of my arms isn't something that happens."

"Yo've got a lot more control over your dreams than I do, Mom. So, what am I. Why's there two of me?"

"My daughter. The only child I ever had despite spending centuries awake and wandering the earth in between thousands of years spent asleep."

"Mom?"

She held me to her shoulder, and the nostalgic smell of her shampoo jolted memories of the times I'd spend pressed against her back as she dusted the house.

"I am Annette, the only android made by Gardim that can give birth to children. I'm perhaps the last gasp of romance and wishful thinking of the Gardim people." She stroked my hair as she continued. "I was built parallel to Nevanlinna, before I was discarded on the eve of my activation when my makers were found out. Till today, who activated me and completed me remains a mystery to me."

An AI exists for a reason. Should I ask Mom what hers is? The words left my lips before I could gather my thoughts.

"And what about me, Mom?"

The sunlight disappeared as Polaris entered the hangar of the Tuaatha, and I shook from the cold.

"You're my arch directive fulfilled. To find and propagate the people of Gardim, as well as love them. You're Taylor, the only other living being besides Danny that carries a recognizable Gardim genetic code in this universe."

I wanted to speak, before Mom shut me with a glare.

"Make no mistake though. Even if you and Danny were the most mangy mongrels in terms of genetic purity, I'd still love you two more than anything else in the world."

It wasn't until I had docked and Mom left with Dad for the med bay, that I realized Mom hadn't told me how I jumped bodies.

/x/

I watched from Bay S1 as my parents disappeared round the corner to the med bay, before a sudden heatwave blasted me in the face and I stumbled to my knees. From the corner of my vision, I saw the Villkiss still in it's robotic Destroyer form. The usually white frame of the Ragnamail glowed lava red, and several of the AI onboard the Mithril Arm Slaves continued to speak at the Villkiss. Cleopatra stood alert, blade drawn but pointed down before the red glow of the Villkiss died and it transformed into it's ride mode. The air was heavy with dread as the ground crew got close to the Villkiss with a stretcher, before the hangar resounded with the screech of tearing metal when the cockpit opened. Several of the crew yelled in panic after a flood of red liquid gushed out, before Salia yelled into the Cleopatra's speakers.

"Don't panic!" I cupped my ears. I forgot how _loud_ robot speakers can be. "Look carefully at Ange as you get her out."

A mass of wires-veins- were attached to the left side of Ange's stomach as she was slowly removed from the Villkiss. The mass of veins extended as Ange was laid on the stretcher, before it retracted into the Villkiss leaving a small cut in the side of its mistress. Now what does that remind me off-Oh.

An umbilical cord. Christ. And I thought the Evangelions were bad.

Salia continued to bark orders at the crew as they whisked Ange towards the med bay, while I digested the scene of an ancient robot imitating human birth to keep it's mistress on life support.

"Admiral Trois?"

I turned around as a warm, gravely voice called me. A man with graying hair and salt-pepper beard approached, his pot belly peaked out from his open grey jacket. I blinked as the expected name and bio-data of the man who approached me didn't appear in the corner of my vision as I anticipated.

"Strange."

"Admiral?"

I ignored the question as I smacked myself on the left of my head, and static blurred my vision before the desired interface and data returned. There was a ringing in the background that was audible enough for me to notice, but soft enough that it didn't distract. I shook my head to get rid of it, and looked up from the floor to notice the Mithril crew looking at me with concern.

"You're spacing out, Admiral. You need me to get you a medic too?"

I caught myself and smiled at the bearded man, whose tension melted from his face at my reaction. His grey jacket over a green checkered shirt and white pants were stained with oil, while he held a wrench in one hand and a data tablet in the other. The blue cap with Mithril's insignia shadowed his baby-blue eyes, but it didn't do much to detract from his fatherly concern I felt from the man.

"Lieutenant Sacks, " I held out my hand, and he hesitated for a while before he stuffed the tablet into his jacket and shook with his clean hand. "It's been almost a life time for me."

"Does that explain why you shrunk and lost a few years of age?"

"No it doesn't," I sighed as that question lingered in the back of my mind. "Part of me's elated that the years I've spent with Earth Fleet Tenku is real. Another part's just stuck in a permanent rut like it's day one in boot camp."

Well the part, the me that underwent boot camp and is several years my senior. Taylor Trois, I wonder if you've ever underwent my childhood.

A loud clang echoed throughout the hangar, and I gazed at a tanned woman with auburn hair, brown cargo pants, boots and a white singlet. She clambered over the frame of the Polaris, its gigantic frame cast a shadow over the Armed Slaves which rested in the nearby docks. Were it anyone else, I'd be worried over her falling to her death from the charred chest of the Polaris which stood at close to a hundred feet. But if it's her, a single harness would be sufficient. Her hair swung freely in it's ponytail as she ignored the dust and soot which accumulated while she studied my machine, and I decided to test how well I could control the Polaris outside of its cockpit.

I admit, I was amused when she yelped as my speakers came to life.

"Nami," Sacks cupped his ears as my voice thundered through Polaris, "what are you doing feeling up my robot?"

"Goddamn it, Taylor," Nami yelled as she somehow shimmied down a hundred feet of steel like it was a municipal drain-pipe. She slapped a hand stained black with oil and soot over the scarred, melted leg of the Polaris while she glared at me." No wonder every mechanic and ground crew hated you. Even for a super pilot, your rides almost never come back in one piece. And you used to ride jets!"

"Most other mechanics don't climb all over someone's mech without permission to molest it, Nami. I'd expect you to ask permission rather than forgiveness when you touch my machine."

"Feisty. Keep that up and you can find some other poor dumb bastard to maintain your machines."

"I prefer crazy, smart bitches, Nami. So I'll stick with you, thanks."

"Flattery gets you everywhere."

Nami smiled before she pulled out a tablet that she hid under her shirt and began to watch a video. I raised an eyebrow as the battle I had with Assassin played out, and Nami winced when she saw the black AS' claws sink into the Polaris. "How the hell did you survive that? A cursory glance at the length of the Assassin's claws meant it should have pureed you and your android before you fired off the Polaris Cannons."

I shrugged.

"My rocket fist was faster. So it went into the ground before it could tear through my armor."

"And you fired off Shock Cannons with a sawed off barrel?!" Nami screeched as she studied my damage report further. How the hell she get that so fast. Ah, right. Whispered. "You're as bad as Sosuke and Ryoma when it comes to wrecking your rides!"

"You're pretty good at the whole compliment thing yourself, Nami."

"Oh. A comedian, have we? Fine," Nami fumed as she clambered back onto the S1 Dock and the Polaris. "Fine, you get that creep Uribitake from Nergal to fix your bot next time. He really loves super robots like your ride."

"Let's not get hasty here," I winced as I recalled the intensity of the bespectacled mechanic's _passion_ for machines. "If it's any consolation, Polaris was actually blown up into flaming chunks before it regenerated in a ball of fire when I somehow activated it. So, it was actually a lot worse than what you're seeing now."

"Super robots," Nami sniffed before she resumed her inspection of Polaris. "Typical behavior for them."

I watched in silent satisfaction as Polaris was left in the safe hands of Nami, before she paused and turned back to me.

"Us professionals aside, you really ought to thank several people here who volunteered for the mission. They left behind so much just to get your ass out of the fire."

Before I could ask further, I stumbled forward as I felt someone jump me and catch me in a tight hug. I felt her soft chest, and the smell of a familiar perfume jolted memories of an ever-cheerful woman with a round face, sparkling blue eyes with matching hair.

"Taylor! You've shrunk! You're adorable!" The woman distanced herself slightly from me. "But you stink too. We've got to get you into new clothes!"

I was turned around before I could reply, and I stared into the beaming face of one Yurika Tenkawa née Misumaru. She now showed some signs of age on her perpetually girlish face, and wore a white dress-shirt uniform with plain mantle over a black skirt. Beside her stood her husband Akito Tenkawa. The veins around his cheeks and eyes that once bulged visibly beneath the skin had since receded, and the smile he wore was more natural than the reluctant cheer I was more familiar with four years ago. He ran a hand through his curly, short auburn hair and he almost blended in with the rest of the Mithirl staff when he wore their olive green uniform.

"You are here as well?" The idea so many people would put aside their lives for me even though I wasn't sure if they even existed. "Why?"

"Because there's a glimmer of hope that you were alive, " Akito said, his voice lost much of the edge of his younger days. 'Would you have let this chance slip by if it was Yurika or me?"

I kept silent, since I wasn't sure I'd like my own answer. Rather, I changed the subject.

"How did you find me?"

"Your mother Annette reached out to Nine," Yurika said. Her eyes sparkled with life and vigor as she spoke. "It was so romantic! A mother who would reach out across dimensions and even the barrier of life and death itself-"

"Alright, dear. That's quite enough," Akito thankfully nudged his wife aside as he spoke to me. "After Nine confirmed that it was indeed a genuine extra-dimensional message, she reached out to the former members of Earth Fleet Tenku. We were thrilled, for despite not finding a body, most of us believed you to be dead when your apartment blew up. So we assembled this bare bones task force hastily for this mission with only the essentials and those immdi. Me and Yurika as Class A jumpers, the Vilkiss with the Ragnamails and of course the ground troops and commandos from Mithril. "

Akito paused, before his gaze studied me intently.

"How'd you end up in high school anyway?"

"I've always been in high school, Akito. At least, this version of me had lived out her entire life here as a normal student."

"This version?" The veins on his face popped out from beneath his skin as he frowned. "There might be an alternate version of me here on Earth Bet, but I didn't think jumping from one version of myself to another was possible."

"I'm just as confused as you are, Akito, of how I can jump between different mes." I sighed before my face tightened. " After Tessa's done debriefing me, I'm getting the truth from my parents no matter what."

The Tenkawas nodded before I followed them to the debriefing room

/x/  
It was three in the afternoon, but the sun was already a faint red as it prepared to descend below grey clouds. A black sedan, windows tinted a deep metallic grey pulled into the red-brick driveway of the Barnes house. An Asian woman in a blue jacket and black jeans got out of the driver's seat, her red eyes peaked out from the shades as they slipped down her nose. She pushed the glasses upwards, and a mole appeared below her left eye as the glasses covered the red-irises. The woman opened the door and peered into the backseat where Emma sat with another Asian woman who was the splitting image of the driver, except for her twin ponytails and short hair against the simple bob cut the driver sported. The dark brown hair of the two women were damp due to the slight drizzle that fell, but they showed no signs of discomfort as the two smiled when Emma stepped out of the car.

"Welcome home, Emma."

"Rather be anywhere else," Emma said, her voice barely above an exhausted whisper. "But thanks anyway, Yu Lan."

The driver's smiled waned, as she turned to the other woman who just left the car.

"Sis, please help me carry Emma."

"Thank you, Yu Fan. But I can walk."

Emma waved away the two as she stood still on the driveway, her chest covered in a cream cashmere sweater rose and fell as she stared at the Barnes house. Mist escaped her pink, full lips as she breathed deeply, her body curved and looked around as her breaths grew more erratic, before she heaved and began to vomit onto the perfectly manicured grass. As Emma kept puking, her body shrank and strands of her hair fell off in waves before she ceased throwing up. The sweater, undershirt and light blue jeans that once hugged her now hung loosely upon her frame, before she found herself carried back into the sedan by Yu Lan. Emma blinked as a white warm towel wiped away the sheen of sweat on her face, before she felt her now oversized clothes being replaced as the sisters changed her.

"Ghale Aquarius,"

Emma croaked out, before she chuckled when both sisters froze and looked around. A minute passed without incident, and both sisters visibly relaxed as they finished changing and wiping Emma.

"I doubt Ark would appreciate that ironic salute, Emma."

"Ark doesn't care, Yu Fan,"

Emma sniffed as she got onto her feet and strode up to the door. The sedan doors slammed shut and both sisters were behind Emma before she pushed the entrance door open.

 _A woman with frozen blue eyes and long wavy hair like the deepest night, who stared at the television and ignored her screams. Her parents and Anne who was supposed to be away at camp lined up in the living room, stiff smiles on their faces. Something wiggled beneath the surface of their skin, and Emma pulled at the knob while she yelled at her family to respond and flee. Emma screamed some more, before she grabbed a vase and threw it at the strange woman in her house. The china vase was halfway through before Anne blocked it with her forehead._

 _Emma slumped to the floor, frozen with fear as the strange woman stood up and healed Anne with a single touch. She watched in mute horror as the pale blue china folded into Anne's skin, and the stranger walked over to her._

The door to the Barnes house, made of oakwood and shined to polish shook at its hinges as Emma slammed it shut. She turned on her heels and scrambled back to the car as quickly as her legs can carry her, before she sat stiffly at the back seat while the car pulled out of the driveway to the screech of it's wheels. Emma pulled the drapes over the windows as the car left the street her house was on, before she started to remove the t-shirt that Yu Fan had helped her wear.

"Yu Fan, double dosage. It's time for my adjustments."

"Emma, the adult body places immense strain on your original molecular frame and isn't-"

Yu Fan grabbed Emma's shaking hand by the wrist as she removed a syringe from beneath the seat, before she pried it away from her charge.

"I need the body, Yu Fan," Emma gasped out. "No one takes a twelve year old seriously."

"You're fifteen, Emma."

"Not what my fucked-up body says, Yu Fan. Not what it says."

The sister's eyes met at Yu Lan looked at the rearview mirror, before the car pulled into a side lane. Yu Lan clambered over to the back seat, and together the sisters retrieved syringes of their own too.

"You two are adults. The formula will do nothing."

"You are not alone, Emma. Not since that day in Dekar."

Emma remained silent as the Xia sisters stripped down to their underwear and prepped the syringes with the clear formula. She breathed in the scent of Yu Fan's shampoo. and hissed when she felt the needle plunge into her skin.

" _Huh, it does make it easier,_ " Emma thought at the sensation of the sister's sticky, warm skin. " _Should not grow too dependent on them though._ "

 _Emma sat rooted to the spot as the woman stood in front of her, her family lined up behind her. Their posture was perfect, their smiles ready for the camera._

 _She hated the mannequins that replaced her family._

 _"Rejoice, Terron. Circumstance has earned you the chance to be uplifted beyond your station. Ghale Aquarius"_

 _She loathed the woman that did it._

Her scream sounded bestial as Emma didn't hold back from expressing the pain she felt. Emma didn't know it was over until she awoke to a blanket over her and Yu Fan stroking her hair. From the slight crack as the drapes were pulled back slightly, Emma saw Yu Lan rocking her heels outside the car, gun at ready and fully dressed. Muffled sounds of machinery and voices got Emma pushing upwards, before Yu Fan helped her up by her shoulders.

"Your clothes are ready."

Emma blinked as her eyes slowly adjusted to the car's light after Yu Fan switched it on, and she ran her fingers across the folded red pilot suit with the eagle motif across the chest next to Yu Fan. The eagle was sewn in gold string and spread its wings proudly to the sides, but a glint of polished silver caught her eyes. Emma stared at the helmet with a half metal mask built into it, wings carved into the sides of the helmet.

"Don't forget your mask, Lady M. Now, your machine awaits. "

Emma eagerly put on the suit like it was a second skin, the mask such a perfect fit it was like the metal was forged from her face.

"My machine, Yu Fan."

"Emma?"

"Is it fast?"

Yu Fan smiled.

"Three times as fast."

/x/

Tessa was kind enough to host me in her own Captain's cabin rather than the Tuuatha's mess after the debriefing and medical exam to determine my identity, and I was personally glad to be in somewhere more private as I pulled at the hem of the skirt. I appreciated Tessa loaning me one of her spare uniforms, and I'm relieved that she had gained some inches of height since the time we last met. So instead of flashing my underwear to the entire sub, I only had to keep pulling it down to prevent exposing more thigh than I wanted to. Thank God Tessa had the foresight to loan me a pair of her tights, though the black silky material accentuated the shape of my legs a bit too much for my liking.

"Nice legs, Taylor," Tessa said in that soft lisp of hers. "You must've been be a total knockout in school."

"Not really," The mockery of my looks from the bullies echoed in my ears. "I've always been a bit too tall, a bit too thin."

I stared at the tights over my legs, the smooth black formed a contrast with the manila brown of the Mithril uniform. At least they cover up the blemishes on my skin. And my legs.

"Mind if I keep them, Tessa? They're pretty warm and I'd probably need them once school re-opens post winter-break."

The sound of Tessa's fingers over her tablet screen ceased, and I didn't need to look up to feel her incredulous stare.

"You're still planning to go back?"

Tessa's worried tone made me look up from my legs, as she settled into her chair while I made myself comfortable on the smaller bed. She bit her lower lip and a lock of her silver hair as Tessa alternated her blue-eyed gaze between me and a data tablet she held. Hard to believe this pale, beautiful woman of five and a half feet was a font of otherworldy tech and strategy.

"We're here to _rescue_ you, Taylor. Releasing you into that personal hell would be sloppy." Tessa huffed. "We at Mithril do things thoroughly."

"And you did," I assured her. "I'm no longer bleeding to death in a locker, and I drove off a crazy parahuman and robot out to kill me."

"And you think they'd leave you alone after one failure, Taylor? They tracked down your Dad's hidden lab didn't they? The one even you didn't know about?"

Yeah, remind me that Dad hid so much from me after Mom supposedly died and I was tossed into another dimension. Still, if all those incidents are linked then they tried to kill me three times already. Not to mention Mom and Dad would be in danger as well. Relocating myself to any of the three Earths seemed the logical choice.

But still, to run away felt...

"I'm staying on Earth Bet."

The doors hissed as they slid open, and Mom walked in shaking her head.

"Why am I not surprised?" Mom sighed a sigh tinged with pride. "I'm glad your father decided to follow the plans I've left behind to build the Polaris when he did."

"Mom!" I leaped from my bed into a running hug. Mom stood firmly rooted to her spot despite my tackle, before she settled down on the bed next to me. "How's Dad? And why do you have an actual body now? How did I jump bodies and dimensions?"

"Didn't I teach you to ask one question at a time? I'd ground you, if we're not underwater."

"Real funny, Mom. Now the questions?"

"To set your mind at ease, your dad's fine," A tightness in my chest I didn't notice at first evaporated. "As for how I now have a real body, it's due to the Polaris."

I blinked, and gave Mom a blank look.

"You're a hundred foot robot?"

"No. Just made from it. Or rather, my body wasn't complete until you awakened the Polaris."

"That...doesn't explain much of anything, Mom."

"Okay then," Mom hummed. "How about this? Cosmo Reverse System bootleg. Apparently, I don't need complete knowledge of that system to rebuild myself and the Polaris at the same time."

The A/C sounded deafening, as Tessa and I were shocked into silence. Mom looked sorta sheepish at the bombshell she dropped on us, before Tessa broke the silence.

"Just how? The United Earth Federation has been working feverishly trying to reverse engineer that aspect of Wave Motion technology with Nine's help, and we still weren't any closer than we were four years ago."

"Maybe because the Fed government has been diverting most of its resources towards building the new Andromeda class with the Wave Motion technology instead of something that can actually help and heal people?"

I felt my bile rise as I glared at Tessa, who gave a resigned sigh.

"The NCC faction of the Federal Council has infected most of Earth with its not undeserved paranoia. No one wants Earth to be in a position where they're vulnerable to an alien menace again."

The hard-nosed part of me, Taylor Trois who saw what happened to Earth can agree to that sentiment. But the part of me that fought with Earth Fleet Tenku who dragged and willed a victory against impossible odds however reached a different conclusion.

"How long before the Wave Motion guns are turned against an Earthling world, Tessa?"

I regretted the words the moment I heard them spoken, as Tessa's hurt expression struck me. I knew Mithril wasn't part of the Federation, and how quickly governments can discard heroes and soldiers once they're done with them. Tessa was about to speak, before Mom placed a hand on her shoulders and shook her head.

"Sorry, Tessa. I shouldn't have brought up this topic of conversation," Mom turned to me. "How about we drop the politics?"

"Sure," I said, unable to raise my voice above a whisper or look Tessa in the face. "Let's talk about-"

A siren screeched from the speakers up the walls, and Tessa's hurt melted into a resolute mask. The astute professional who replaced the young woman I hurt answered the ringing on her tablet.

"Captain Testarrosa speaking. Mr Mardukas, report."

"Captain," Mardukas' ever steely voice wavered again today. "We've detected a large object approaching at super-sonic speed. Our sonar is having issue determining it's exact movement and location due to the erratic motion of the water surrounding the subject."

"Erratic motions, Mr Mardukas?"

"After echoes, Captain." The shaking in his voice was now clearly audible as he swallowed. "Permission to deploy Deutronium warheads and prepare for emergency surfacing."


	5. Chapter 5

Recon 5  
/x/

Knowing that an Endbringer was coming specifically for you was flattering in a way that few things in the world can describe, much like how you'd be hard pressed to express your sense of self-worth when a deity causes a natural disaster just to end you. It is also absolutely terrifying, as my suppressed fears about the Endbringers bubbled to the surface. I do not think it an exaggeration that every human alive and lucid on Earth Bet had come to associate the terrible three with the impending extinction of their species. Genesis and Hero had lit a fire underneath our species to follow the path he had paved with his life and machine, but the Three seemed determined to batter the flame until it was snuffed out. Many a promising Tinker that offered his talents had emulated Hero's sacrifice, without his results.

And now, Leviathan is coming straight for the Tuatha de Danann. Which doesn't make sense as the Endbringer had never targeted specific vessels before. What could have-

"Taylor," Mom's hands slipped under my armpits as she lifted me to my feet from the bed, " I could hear you rambling. Breath."

I sucked in as much air as my lungs allowed while I kicked away the heels Tessa had loaned me to wear. They weren't too uncomfortable, but the feeling of both my feet on the cold metal floor kept me much more grounded while I collected my thoughts. I looked around, and saw Tessa had already long left for the bridge. A slight twitch on my left eye and various small windows appeared in my vision, and I winced when I saw the status of the Polaris' Wave Motion Engine. I can move the frame around with my neural controls just fine, but i won't be able to use most of my weapons and dodge properly at the same time. At least Nami and Sacks did their magic, as the cosmetic repairs to the frame are completed. Where the hell did Mithril secure a supply of Iscandarian orichalcum?

"Mom. If I were to allow Leviathan to get a clean shot at me in return for a clean, sure shot with the Polaris Cannons, what are my odds?"

Mom rubbed her face when I suggested replicating the strategy used to nail Sophia and the Assassin, before she muttered out the chances while we both ran towards the pilots locker rooms. Surely there's a pilot suit for me.

"Ninety percent chance of Leviathan ripping out the cockpit and sending both of us to a watery grave."

"Higher than I expected. What's the ten percent for Mom?"

"Zero point five percent we pull through and drive off the Endbringer. Nine point five you push the Wave Motion Engine beyond it's limits and we die in a mini-supernova when it goes critical."

Well, Mom's in a good enough mood to joke at least. Dad's not sloppy enough to not include a failsafe in the engine. So, chances of engine failure and possible chance of victory.

"Mom. Contact Tessa at the bridge and have her hold firing the Deutronium warheads while I sortie to join Cleopatra. I like the odds."

Mom stepped in front of me as we stood outside the lockers room, her face pale with worry when she spread her arms to block me from entering.

"Taylor. Listen to your mother who's also a supercomputer? The Deutronium warheads are by far a better alternative than you going out in the damaged Polaris in an environment it's not meant to operate in."

Mom stood firm when I attempted to push her aside. It felt like trying to move a clamped car with my bare hands and reminded me just how deadly Gardim androids can be in close combat.

"Those same warheads caused the _Second Impact_ when it mixed with Getter Rays, Mom. The data you stole from the PRT makes clear we're not sure what's making those Endbringers tick."

I tried to push past her, hoping she'd wavered. No such luck

"Taylor..."

"Mom, I'm not planning to die a hero or anything like that, okay?"

"From the hacked Protectorate records, neither did most capes, Taylor."

I drew a deep breath, and pulled out my trump card when I brought up my Polaris data and shoved a blanked out option from the virtual console towards Mom. Mom had overridden the commands during my fight on the grounds that they're not ready. Well, going by what I saw just now, they're certainly ready now.

"You're fighting an enemy who uses the very element you're operating in as a weapon, Taylor."

"So did Nevalinna and Gardim when I fought them in a much more fragile craft," I shrugged with every inch of bravado I could muster. I knew that Mom probably can tell my real feelings from measuring my heartbeat and vital signs, but doing so inflamed my own courage as well so. Mom gave in as she opened a comms channel to the Tuaatha's bridge.

"Captain Testarrossa, this is Annette speaking. The admiral wishes to deploy in the Polaris to engage the gargantuan lifeform Leviathan."

"Inform Ms Hebert that permission is denied," Tessa's soft lisp gained the edge she used when in command as her voice cracked through the channel. "We're firing Deutronium missiles the minute the Endbringer is within range, and plan to use the ensuing backblast to clear enough distance between us before performing a Bosson Jump. Only the Cleopatra has the speed and abilities to match the demands of the mission."

Mom paused and looked at me, before she cleared her throat and continued.

"Captain Testarrossa. The admiral wishes for your AI Dana to accept the data packet with her proposed plan of attack," Mom's eyes turned glassy as she began to transmit the information. "She's also deeply concerned over the possibility that the Endbringer's powered by unknown substances or energies similar to Getter Rays, and wishes to prevent even the _chance_ of another Second Impact by halting the firing of Deutronium warheads."

The silence and wait felt like forever, even if the clocks along the corridors signify only a minute had passed before Tessa sighed out.

"We're currently four thousand five hundred meters from the ocean surface, and two hundred nautical miles from the closest landmass," The sound of fabric being pulled back came from across the comms channel as Tessa made a show of clicking on her watch. "Three sixty."

"Beg pardon, Captain?" Mom said as Tessa continued. "We can spare three hundred sixty seconds. Make it count."

The sub groaned as the ground rumbled and I was reminded how lesser I weighted when my body almost shot upwards to the roof before Mom grabbed and held me down. Guess those seconds Tessa mentioned have already started.

"So you will fire the warheads once the Tuatha breaches the ocean surface in six minutes then?"

I pulled open the nearest locker in the female side and held my breath when the stench of stale tobacco and beer hit me, along with beer cans and magazines. So it's Mao's locker then. Still, her suits are better than nothing. I slipped on the black bodysuit and Mom helped me to tighten the armor pads, as the helmet hissed when it fully sealed itself and the air circulation kicked in. I gulped down the recycled air which was so thick you can chew on it, before I dashed out towards the Polaris.

"Fine by me, Captain."

/x/

Alarms blared as the M9s, Villkiss and non essential staff and equipment were moved further into the hangar while the Polaris was moved by the TDD's EMALS from Bay S1 to the launch point. I was cut off from the rest of the hangar as massive metal plates slammed down from the roof, and seawater gushed in from the walls as the newly formed chamber was flooded. Other than the soft flicker of light along the runway Polaris stood on, all light disappeared from beyond the nose of the Polaris. My cameras blurred when my sensors detected a sudden surge of pressure from the water and the hull opened. I frowned at the ambient temperature readings of the seawater, three hundred degrees , before Mom showed me a screen from the Tuatha's topographic map of our surroundings.

"We're close to a hydrothermal vent," Mom pointed to red patched floor located just next to us on the 3D model. "Both the Palladium reactor and the Minovsky Drive for the Tuatha's cloaking were drained during the Parallel Boson Jump from the Universal Century, so Tessa stopped here to charge."

"Just hope Behe-"

"Don't jink it," Mom cut me off. "Control. This is the Polaris. Requesting permission to launch."

"It's dark," I said as Cleopatra's IFF signal appeared on my HUD, Four nautical miles at ninety degrees upwards from my current location." And oppressive. Gives off a feel like the Rainbow Star Cluster, with the Domel Fleet waiting for us with a surprise."

"Between the Space Wolf and his pack, or the Endbringer. Which do you prefer, Taylor?" Mom paused, before she spoke again. All signs of levity absent from her voice. "Cleopatra's acting strange, and I can't establish radio contact with Salia at this distance due to the water pressure."

Salia's IFF blinked in and out of my sensors, to no one's surprise. The only surprise was the fact she didn't suffer an even more crippling phobia of both the sea and the dark and was willing to launch in these conditions. I found an increased admiration for Salia's mental toughness, considering she nearly drowned in her Paramail before Embryo fished her out. I should reinforce her, so she doesn't panic anymore.

"Polaris. This is Control," Tessa's voice came over the channel. "You're cleared for launch. Good luck."

"Taylor Hebert. Polaris. Launching"

The guiding lights along the runway glared as all several dozen tons of my Polaris was carried along the EMALS and out of the sub. I gunned my engine as soon as the Polaris was out of the sub, and twin turbines on my shoulders glowed a blinding azure blue when I cut across the dark waters towards the Cleopatra. Proximity alarms from my rear informed me of the movement of the currents, which signified the Tuatha heading for the surface. I gripped at the twin throttles and pushed the Polaris further ahead, before Mom placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Easy there, Ace. I'm guessing that Salia's not the only one affected fighting here huh?"

"Guess the locker affected me more than I thought," Mom arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"Just the locker? Or was it memories of something far bigger that haunts you?"

A metal coffin, as I laid helpless and dying surrounded by the corpses of my fellow soldiers. A darkness marked by the stars that stretched forever while I was forgotten in light of a threat that threatens to end humanity as a species.

"Operation M," I hissed out. "Not my memories."

"Taylor Trois is as much you as Taylor Hebert is, Ace. Just like the Annette who mothered you is the same as me who's in this newly built body."

"That's-"

"I doubt Salia or the rest of Earth Fleet Tenku cares _which_ Taylor you are when they crossed dimensions and risked their lives for you," The Cleopatra entered visual range of Polaris' cameras and I attempted to establish com links with Salia. "Why should you?"

"We'll talk about my existential crisis and phobias later, Mom," A grainy projection of Salia appeared above my console as I established contact with the Cleopatra. "We've got an Endbringer to fight."

I slowed down Polaris' approach to where Salia is, before she disappeared from my sensors.

"Salia?" I turned on the subspace sonars to search for any signs of Cleopatra's space-time distortion movements. "Mom. Can you assist-"

"Incoming!"

I banked hard to the right before Mom had finished speaking, my proximity alarms suddenly alive with warnings of incoming projectiles.

"Switching to infrared sights," Mom intoned while I suddenly found myself surrounded by swirling swarms of light-green scales that glowed like embers in my sights. The scales formed twisters in their wake when they closed in, and I felt the first two scenarios I had wargamed in my head crumble into the seabed. A 3D model of our combat zone was generated on the console, and Leviathan was marked out as a giant green blob while a scale model of the TDD escalated rapidly towards the surface.

"Levi's got us good."

Green beams of light roared their entrance above me, brightening the darkness for a second and I got a good look at my enemy in the flesh. Against the inky backdrop that was the sea, the creatures massive upper half that was formed of cords of muscles around the neck, chest and shoulders pulsed as endless scales swam towards me like the tides they dragged along.

"Wave Motion Barrier! Full Power!"

Mom yelled while the scale storm pelted me like the torrential rain Leviathan used to herald his arrival. My ears rang as the alarms warned me of a million different things, though Mom had the foresight to shut down the pop-up windows in my HUD to spare me the reports about things we could do nothing about. More green beams from above, followed by the Cleopatra as she dived within Leviathan's immediate reach before the Endbringer attempted a half-hearted swipe and casual wave of its scales. Salia's frustrated screams could be heard cutting in and out of the audio feed from our comms as she sensed the Endbringer's disinterest with her. We and the Polaris meanwhile sank towards the ocean floor, with all non life support functions diverted to the barrier that prevented the scales from ripping us apart.

"So we can wait for Levi to be done trying to break in, or we can wait for the engine to go critical and cook us both."

I hissed out my frustrations, before the shaking stopped and the proximity alarms ceased their wails. Mom's eyes narrowed when I saw the green blob swim towards the TDD on my console's display.

"It's going for the Tuatha." Mom turned towards me. "If the Endbringer reaches it, we will be swimming to shore since we lack enough power to reach the closest island."

"Real funny, Mom," I barked a pity laugh out as I pushed the console down and it disappeared into the floor before my chair rolled forward. "Executing Plan D."

"Plan D, Taylor? As in Plan _Don't even think about it_?"

"Don't wanna swim to wherever the beach is, Mom."

Mom gave me the look of disapproval that only mothers can give, before she shook her head and she rolled her own seat forward to join me. I watched energy gauge for the Wave Motion Engine, and calculated how much power was left before it hit the threshold and we risked going supernova.

"Three minutes," I said while Mom snorted. "One minute less than what Tessa gave us before she fires Deutronium missiles and maybe doom Earth Bet."

Mom placed her hand over mine and clasped it as we gripped the throttle together while the Polaris shook from the continued waves of attack. There's going to be a lull in the storm just about... _now!_

"Big Dipper! transform!"

The twin turbines that emitted the Wave Motion Barrier spun till they smoked, before their azure light morphed into a pillar that tore into the ocean bed and pierced into the sky beyond the sea. I shed the limbs and rest of the Polaris below the waist as wings sprouted from the torso and the turbines took settled below them. The Shock Cannons shed eighty percent of it's mass before a single gun barrel stuck itself in the gap right below my cockpit.

"You know Mom. How did Dad plan to land this thing when he built it?"

"He wasn't," Mom's smile was both maniacal and proud. "You're supposed to fire every last sucker on the Big Dipper, dump it once you're done, _then_ crash it's nose into the enemy if that's not enough to kill whatever you're planning to kill. "

"...Why?!"

"If it's something you can't kill even after you've used all your options, than you pull out more options till you kill it!"

I paused in silent appreciation before I burst out laughing as we tore out of the pillar of light like a bat out of hell.

"Dad's a maniac, and I love him!"

Leviathan's scales awaited me, and swarmed me while I jetted through the dark water. Columns of bubbles mixed with the light from my engines and they shone like pearls in the sun before the green scales tore through them in pursuit of me. I grabbed the control stick, and _yanked_ it to send my world into a tailspin when I zipped up and down the ocean with the scales nipping at my heels. The exhaust from the engines burned brighter, and the Big Dipper crunched when I suddenly stopped and dropped below for a wave of scales to go above me.

"Taylor! Remember we don't have a Wave Motion Barrier as the Big Dipper!"

I tipped my head to acknowledge Mom, before I let lose with a barrage from the auto-cannons on my nose cone and and the Shock Cannon. I was giddy, from the glow of the Shock Cannon beam, the muzzle flash of my cannons and the vertigo I felt after I pealed away from an incoming tide of scales. I held my breath while my heart thumped against my chest when I shot towards the surface with more scale swarms behind me, before I broke left and the Big Dipper trembled against the sudden surge and turn. The display of data and number fizzled until I was right side up again and I let loose with another barrage of cannon fire. The red dots on my console had thinned, before my heart nearly stopped when I saw the red blob that represented Leviathan had grown three times it's original size.

"Leviathan's not that big! Where's he hidi-"

The red blob reduced to a thin silver that stretched from thermal vent, and Mom slammed a fist onto her console before a grey cloud consumed the Big Dipper. I shut my eyes from a sudden spike of pain in my head when the world seemed to fall apart before I forced open my eyes again. My sensors placed me four hundred meters to the left and up from my previous location, where a glowing red and white scaly tail now was. The intense glare dimmed as the lava-like color spread to the rest of Leviathan, and I ground my teeth as the four green eyes of Leviathan met my stare.

"Bastard used the thermal vent as concealment," I could not hide the excitement in my voice. "Guess he's smarter than people give him credit for."

"Taylor," Mom cut in. "TDD's and Cleopatra's almost breached the surface, and we're only nine hundred meters from the surface."

"Bullshit. We were at least three K meters from the surface."

"Were," Mom said while she checked the thermostat. "The sea has moved, and ambient temperatures are rising."

How would you move an ocean's worth of wa- Leviathan. The Big Dipper shook, and I found the nose cone now pointed towards the surface.

"Mom! What're you doing?!"

"Bailing out."

The ocean surface got closer despite us not having moved an inch. Light from the sun lit up the water, but the view was obscured as the ocean bubbled with the rising temperature.

"Leviathan's directing the ocean in and out of the vent to boil us while using his feints as a distraction," Mom said while I pulled uselessly against my controls. "Now that's failed, he's planning to simply smash us with the weight of the sea."

The Tuatha tumbled around in the sea, as Leviathan caught up before he jabbed his tail against the sub. Cleopatra blinked into the path of the Endbringer's strike and deployed it's beam shield before the waves and Leviathan's tail smashed past Cleopatra's defenses and hurled the Ragnamail into the sub. I steered towards the Tuatha and Salia as they were carried by the twisting currents deeper towards the seabed.

"Mom! Tessa and the others-"

"Are not my priority," I screamed as the Dipper burst out of the ocean and into the sun, rainbows formed between the risen foam left in our wake. "Not that they need us."

My subspace sensors came to life, as the air rippled before the Tuatha appeared next to me in the sun. It's frame was dented, green scales stuck in the plating and thrusters that burned a red flame, but it was still alive.

"Admiral Trois," Marduka's voice crackled over the choppy link that the TDD had established with me, " Good work holding out against the bandit. Truly admirable soldiery."

With everyone in it.. Good work, Mithril. I can see why you guys are worth every last penny.

"Please excuse the Captain, for she has exhausted herself in ensuring our continued participation in the mission," Mardukas continued while I heard the smirk in his voice. "Sending the first wave of reinforcements."

First wave? Two flashes of lighting, one blue and the other red with gold before I saw the Cleopatra and the Villkiss manifest with their wings spread out. Red lines of light burned across the gold and white frame of the Villkiss, and I clutched my chest as a fire rose within.

"Hey, Admiral!"

I dug into the people in Trois' memories, and not a single one of them could get me someone who would make my rank sound like douchebag like she does. Classic Ange, mocking those she fancies. Not even a gut shot that almost disemboweled her and nearly dying from a loss of blood will keep that wild girl down for long.

"That overgrown sea slug just rubs me the wrong way, y'know."

I could see her murderous grin and dagger's glare over our comms channel, and was instantly reminded why even among the myriad aces and literal gods of Earth Fleet Tenku Ange stood shoulder to shoulder with even the best of them.

"Those four eyes on its head would look so much better with a little rearrangement, you know. Move one to the left so there's a pair on both sides? And it hanging off a mount on top of Arzenal's airport of course! All the tourists to my island will freak!"

Ange sees the Endbringer as _prey_. I found myself chuckling darkly while I aligned the Big Dipper alongside the two Ragnamails piloted by pissed off Norma, before the torpedo tubes of the TDD opened up.

"Admiral," Mardukas said. "You left something behind, but Ms Ange was kind enough to retrieve it once she was well enough to do so. We at Mithril frowns upon illegal dumping."

Pillars of steel sprang out into the sun, edifices of red and black iron that called out to me. _The rest of the Polaris_.

"Lieutenant Sacks and Ms Nami sends their regards."

It felt so natural, as the parts of Polaris I cast off in the name of pragmatism rejoined me. I stood up from my seat, undid my ponytail and walked forward with fists clenched. But before anything else...

"Hey Mom?"

I stood tall and proud, as I felt the Wave Motion Engine and the ancient power as old as the North Star surge within me when the Big Dipper reformed into the Polaris. Gouts of flame erupted from the heat dispersal fibers that made up my hair as I stared down the shadow of the Leviathan that hovered just below the boiling surface of the sea. Jets of steamed water shot out, and I spread out the Wave Motion Barrier as an aegis to shield the Tuatha and my friends. Boiling twisters a kilometer high lurched out, and died as they crashed against my shield.

"Yeah?"

"The whole seizing control thing from me? I understand the need but," I was proud that the _glare_ I used to get some of the members of the Fleet in line actually made her flinch. "Don't ever do it again."

"I'll try, Taylor. I'll try."

"Yes, Mom. You'll _try_."

From now on, I will fight on my feet.

The seas bubbled and a cloud of steam rose from above us. Leviathan met us in the air, and he brought the sea with him. The Villkiss' golden glare surged, but I held out my left hand.

"Ange! Leviathan has brought the seas into the sky to stop us!"

"Oh? And what do you plan to do?"

"Taylor," Mom said. "Anti flash, anti shock defenses engaged."

I crouched low, as I focused the the power on my glowing fists. The world around me twisted, as the Wave Motion power leaked into it.

"I'm going to ride the wave, just like how you've always dared me to Ange!"

Ange yelled out her laughter, before she let loose with the Space-Time Convergence Cannons at Leviathan's shadow. I dived fist first just above the wave of twisted universe the Villkiss had fired off, to allow the pull to boost my momentum.

"Taylor!" Mom's encouragement. It's heartening. "Become the star that will guide us to the future!"

I have become the light, as Polaris surged straight towards the shadow of the sea that darkens our way.

" _Polaris Crash_!"

We met the boiling sea and Leviathan. A flash of light that blotted out the sun, before the ocean and Leviathan's upper half was no more.


	6. Side Story- Mama and Papa

div class="messageContent"  
blockquote class="messageText SelectQuoteContainer ugc baseHtml"Admiral- Side Story-/blockquote  
blockquote class="messageText SelectQuoteContainer ugc baseHtml"Good Girl Loves Mama and Papa/blockquote  
blockquote class="messageText SelectQuoteContainer ugc baseHtml"Riley clenched her fists as she looked up at the old man who rescued her from those bad people. Despite his long, white beard and hair that reminded her of Santa Claus, there's nothing she can see that's jolly of him. His pants were torn, and his skin was grey mixed with ash white. His shirt had seen better days, as the worn green fabric strained against his body that reminded Riley of those marble statutes. The long cane he leaned on had a layer of bronze- dried blood- over the metal blue of its shaft, while the two pointed tip and the blue orb between the points was a deep shade of red. His eyes were yellow, and reminded her of an owl before it swept down on a /br / Fifteen hours ago, Riley would have felt sick over the smell of iron from the cane and the old /br / Fifteen hours ago, Riley had not revived her parents time and again while parahumans thought and improvised creative ways to kill /br / Marrow. Lung. Heart. The brain. All the fluids that the spine carried. Riley now had an instinctive understanding of their workings and the means with which to manipulate them. No heart? Make do with the lungs hardwired to the spine. Kidneys missing? Replace with the large intestine. Their leader, Jack always knew what to say. He guided the rest of them, before he let them loose. Again, and again he'd prompt the rest of them do their /br / Until the twentieth time, when an SUV drove itself through the wall and into the Brute who grew stronger and uglier when he drank blood. Crimson. The fuse box exploded in a shower of sparks, before every light bulb in the living room shattered and showered the Nine in /br / Then the old man burst in through the door, the wood splintered as he made his entrance. Hatchet Face struck first, his hatchet bore down on the old man's lion-like mane before the cane pierced him and stuck him into the wall. A blast of white energy engulfed the Brute, and Riley covered her ears when Hatchet Face /br / "Strong, violent and loud!" The old man declared. "You'd make a fine Mechanical Beast!"br /br / Riley clung to the bodies of her parents-still warm, still workable- as the old man turned to her. More chaos, as every alarm in her street sounded at once when the orb on the old man's cane glowed and every car on the street barrelled towards the house. Riley shut her eyes and dug into her each hand into what's left of a parent's torso when she felt herself being lifted up and then placed on a metal /br /emA car,/em Riley realized when she heard the roar of the engine and felt the wind as she was sped off. She opened her eyes, but shut them again when she felt the wind sting her. The old man cleared his throat in disdain, his voice loud and /br / "A bit of wind, and you shut your eyes tight like some little girl," Riley could hear the man shake his head. "What happened to the collected talent that displayed such ingenious knowledge even I would find hard to match?"br /br / "I am a little girl!" Riley shouted to her own surprise. She thought her voice was lost in the horror she experienced. "I'm only eight!"br /br / "No you're not," The old man's voice was heard clearly even through the roar of the wind. "What did your mother say when she could still speak?"br /br / The sound of the wind disappeared, as her mother's gasp echoed in Riley's /br / "Be a good girl. I'm a good girl."br /br / The car slowed, before it sputtered to a halt. The old man grunted and leaped down the roof before he walked towards the horizon. Riley stared as the old man departed, before she turned back to her parents. He was a hundred paces away from the car, before he turned back and glared at the stunned /br / "Well, if you're going to use your parents, fix them!"br /br / "Fix them?"br /br / The old man grinned, before he ran back to the car and began to rip it apart with the /br / "Revive them! Rebuild them! I have the technology and you have the power! Remake your Mama and Papa, Good Girl!"br /br / Good Girl looked at what remained of her parents, much of their body ruined from the rough extraction from the house, the journey and her own works. Still, with the car...br /br / Riley decided she can work with that. Ma Pa will be with her /br / "A fusion of metal and flesh, Good Girl. Aim for that! If your parents were taken from you, make your own!"br /br / Good Girl breathed deeply, before she gave a bright smile towards the old man. She climbed down the roof and onto the dusty road, wiped away the blood on her face with the clean part of her dress and /br / "And you sir. May I have the honor of your name."br /br / The old man looked up from the dismantling of the car, and nodded in approval before he resumed his /br / "I am Dr Hell."/blockquote  
/div 


	7. The Mouse Bears of Brockton Bay

The Mouse Bears of Brockton Bay

/x/

The ground shook as the Minuteman's feet strolled through it's reinforced streets. Miss Militia nodded in approval that despite the slight tremors, the pavement and asphalt remained intact despite the weight of her robot going on its maiden patrol. The sun rose to greet Brockton Bay on a new day, and Miss Militia smiled in relief at the less than feared damage done to the city during the battle last night.

Much of the damage was centered around the Docks and Winslow, Miss Militia thought as she saw construction crews roll ahead of her while ambulances went the other way. Most ambulances are returning empty. Glad to see collateral damage is low.

Her console beeped the proximity alarm informing her of oncoming aircraft, and Miss Militia looked upwards. The cameras onboard allowed her almost a completely unimpeded view of the brightening sky as PRT helicopters flew pass. Miss Militia tested her cameras and zoomed in on several men and women dressed in suits who sat on board the choppers, and raised an eyebrow as she saw the lapel pins they wore.

 _Red planet set against a large red star. Crimson executives accompanied by Watchdog here to oversee their investment at work probably._

Curiosity sated, Miss Militia continued on her route towards the Docks and raised a hand in a return salute at several construction crews who greeted her.

 _Who said the United States can't do infrastructure anymore,_ Miss Militia thought as she saw the widened streets and newly erected buildings that lined it. The Machine-Safe Initiative was a roaring success, thanks to the Crimson Industrial Group managing to get the federal government and Watchdog of the PRT to cooperate and draft the master plan. Accord even volunteered for the project to revamp America's roads and cities from the ground up. And Brockton Bay, being a coastal city got a large does of funding and expertise. Swathes of the city benefited from the rebuilding, and even the parts not slated for redevelopment benefits from the extra economic activity.

 _Of course_ , Miss Militia frowned as her cameras caught gang signs painted on walls just outside her route, _the rats too benefit from the largesse as well._

Miss Militia hummed as she zoomed the camera towards a waving boy on the street, and had the Minuteman flash its warning orange lights before it lowered itself gradually into a kneeling position. The lights flashed red as stray cars got too close for comfort, but ultimately no driver decided to test his luck today as they steered clear of the Minuteman.

"Slowly there, boy, " Miss Militia cooed to her machine as the upper torso was now only fifteen feet above the ground. "There. That's a good boy."

Miss Militia pulled up her American flag scarf to cover her face and checked a mirror to ensure her PRT issued powder blue helmet was shined to perfection before she turned on the external cameras. A rotund drone, grey-white with two clamps for arms took off from her back and hovered near the boy who squeaked in delight. The blank screen on the front of the drone flickered to life, and Miss Militia gave her best smile and salute.

"Good afternoon, young citizen," Miss Militia fought down a frown at the overly sultry voice of the recorded message that the droid broadcast, "Allow me to introduce the Minuteman! Another fine machine from the Hero's Legacy."

Miss Militia kept up her practiced smile as the drone went into it's sales pitch about the action figures due soon in stores, as her mind wandered to the prototype. Minuteman's initial design was more streamlined, even elegant. The arms that drooped to the front like that of a great ape. The simple dome-shaped head and visor that acted as it's eyes. An almost hourglass figure that ended at legs that resembled upward rockets. All in forty five feet of gunmetal grey, broken by rings of soft blue light. Close enough to the shape of humanity, but different enough.

"But of course, it's not on the nose enough," Miss Militia shook her head as Minuteman went through committee hell. "So, a redesign."

A tricorn hat was welded to Minuteman's skull, painted in black with shades of the red, white and blue. The same color scheme was liberally applied, and Miss Militia was thankful they didn't somehow force a wig to complete the look.

"I suppose it'd grow on me," Militia gave a mournful look at the prototype before she beheld the current robot in all its glory. "Eventually."

Militia found her mourning cut short as her enhanced sensors sounded off a potential threat, her metal detectors having located machines made of unknown material.

 _Another Tinker? Or is Squealer getting inspired?_

Then the camera's finished their projected estimate of how the new threat looked like, and Miss Militia ran a diagnostic check on her systems.

"All clear. Minuteman's scanners are working fine," Miss Militia rubbed her eyes in disbelief as she beheld her new target. "What's this? A bear crossed with a mouse wearing a flak jacket? And why is there an antenna on it's helmet?"

The heroine sighed, before she drove Minuteman towards her target.

 _Why would anyone have a miniature robot running around in a school that's condemned? Why was it lugging bags around? And more importantly._

Miss Militia gulped while her cheeks burned.

 _Why is that thing so darn cute?!  
_  
/x/

Gladys was confused. And it wasn't the harried confusion you experienced when you're near a violent crime scene with adrenaline affecting your judgement and your brains reverts to something more primitive. But rather, the cognitive dissonance you face when you're confronted by a crocodile faced clown who's robbing you to get its next fix from the crack dealing elephant.

"Fumofu!"

Or getting a shotgun wielded by a mascot bear in a flak jacket pointed at your face. That'll break your mind pretty good too. Gladys' gaze wandered to the rows of white plastic lumps with wires sticking out of them, and his eyes wandered to the rectangle pieces of metal that the mascot laid to face outwards before his vision was blocked by the unwelcome sight of the business end of a very large shotgun.

"Fumofu!"

Gladys sighed, as he slumped against the wall of the ruined auditorium. His body shook as he laughed, which prompted the mascot to tilt its head forwards.

"I'm the first teacher on scene, and now I'm about to be killed by a mascot teddy bear with a shotgun," Gladys flashed a maniacal grin at the mascot before he placed the nozzle of the shotgun at his forehead. "Before I tell St Peter how I died, mind telling me why you want to blow up Winslow?"

"Fumo," The mascot nodded. "Fumofu Fumo fumo. Fumofu Fumo Fufumo fu Fumo."

"Huh," Glady's blinked before he rubbed his eyes. "I actually sorta understood what you're saying-"

 _Squeak_

Gladys wasn't sure how it was possible, but the face of the mascot twisted in fear. Gladys found himself stepping a few steps away from the mascot with the gun.

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. _Squeak_.

The mascot turned behind and raised a hand to ward off the coming evil.

"Fumofu! Fumo!"

Evil arrived in the form of another mascot bear, pure grey to the brown and spotted of the original. Its judgement was delivered, as a five feet long paper-fan smacked the upside of the original mascot.

"Fu! Mo! Fu!"

Gladys looked away from the impending tragedy and directed his attention to the outside of Winslow. Then, he saw a robot painted red, white and blue with the Protectorate symbol on it's chest and tricorn hat approach the main gates of the school.

"Attention," Miss Militia's voice paused, before it resumed a pitch higher through the speakers, "Bonta-kuns. Power down your suits and step out of those, fluffy packages so I can kee...apprehend you."

A green-black wave of energy hovered along the robots frame, as several cannons appeared around the torso and the Minuteman pointed a rifle at the duo mascots.

"Fumo? Fumofu Fuu," the grey Bonta-kun remarked while the brown one turned towards it. "Fumo."

Another smack of the paper fan, this time lacking much of the indignant rage evident in the previous blow. Miss Militia's gasp was clearly heard from the speaker as she closed in.

"Don't hurt Bonta-"

Minuteman's legs breached the hedge fence of metal plates. The claymore mines responded and turned the outline of the school into fire. Watchdog would later remark that the Crimson Group ended up sending them a smaller bill then anticipated, as rebuilding something on the crater that was Winslow High was cheaper than repairing it.

/x/

Director Piggot read through the report presented to her by Miss Militia, reached for a plastic bottle on her desk and groaned when she found it empty.

"Go easy on the asprin, Director." Miss Militia cautioned. "Too much of that drug might kill you."

"I'd rather it did," Piggot retorted before she sighed and laid the twenty page report on her desk. She gave another look, before she laid back in her seat and rubbed her eyes. "Gas explosion?"

"Pardon me, Ma'am."

"Gas explosion, Hannah."

Piggot leaned forward into her desk as she glowered at the Protectorate heroine.

"We're covering this shit up. Way, way up in the deepest pit we can find. Or do you prefer to let the world know that you allowed two fluffy dolls to escape after blowing up a school?"

"No one was even injured, Director."

"You're a hero, Hannah, not a joke." Piggot groaned. " End of discussion. We're not going to let the Protectorate ENE's roll out of the Legacy program be associated with an extinct mascot from a drowned amusement park!"

/x/

No, I'm not translating Bonta-kun's dialog. Stop asking. 


End file.
